Star Wars the Clone Wars Neon Squadron
by Podracer10
Summary: Bred to be perfect soldiers, clone cadets must be subjected to intense physical and mental training before heading off to war. Some clone squads however, have succeeded faster and taken on more intense challenges. Neo squadron has become one of those squads, willing to do anything to do their duty, as a team.
1. Neon Squadron

5 clone cadets are in the training arena practicing for their final test. 2 bounty hunters are monitoring them, their are 2 bounty hunters for every 5 squads to train more clones faster. The clones are almost half way through.

"CT-4753! Duck!" One shouts, the clone obeys as a bolt whizzes over his head.

"Thanks Ace!" He replies and continues knocking down droids.

The bounty hunters, a Twi'lek and Human, begin to talk.

"These guys are slow." The Twi'lek says.

"Yes but they are extraordinary at getting the job done Cartner." The Human replies.

"They never leave a droid active, bit like you Qi, back in the day." Cartner adds.

"Would you look at that! Even in such a high level of difficulty, Heavyfire is able to clear a path. He's a beast with that gun!" Qi points out.

"And the one they call "Ace" and CT-4753 are headed to the left turret tower. those two are inseparable. The simulation will be over soon with those two at the tower." Cartner warns.

"That name is new, why do they call him that?" Qi asks.

"He's never been hit." Cartner answers. "Sniper and CT-4755 are headed for the right tower now. They're also an inseparable pair."

"That one rarely misses, but CT-4755 can't aim for shit. He's amazing in the medical field and hand-to-hand combat though." Qi adds.

"CT-4753 is pretty stealthy, could make a great scout one day. They're definitely the most diverse group the most diverse group that can still work together. Unlike Domino squad." Cartner says with the last sentence in disgust.

"And on top of that they're on the second highest difficulty in the program. Them and Xerox squad. Not many squads can do that in their start training. I believe the last time that was done, was Cody's squad." Qi reminds.

In the arena CT-4753 prepares his extension cable to scale the tower and take hold of the turret. He fires the cable and starts to climb. Ace gives Sniper the all clear signal and the two prepare to scale the right tower. The droids are starting to close in on Heavyfire, he's just a few feet from the citadel. CT-4753 reaches the top of the tower and throws the droid off the edge. He opens fire with the turret on the droids surrounding Heavyfire. Sniper and CT-4755 are now in the right tower, Sniper shooting them down with his rifle while CT-4755 fires the turret at the droids. Ace reaches Heavyfire and they work together to reach the citadel with heavy cover fire. Sniper knocks down the guns and turrets on the citadel and Ace launches his extension cable, he starts to scale the citadel.

"We got all the droids yet?!" He asks Heavyfire.

"Yup! It's all on you!" Heavyfire replies as he releases a full round of bolts into the last droid.

Ace reaches the top and grabs the beacon, another victory for Neon squadron.

"Neon squadron to the observation deck." Qi orders over the speakers.

Neon squadron obeys and within a few minutes they're standing at attention with Qi and Cartner right in front of them.

"At ease." Qi orders and the clones relax. "We'd like to congratulate you on your victory. Your performance once again, was phenomenal. We also have a question for you."

Cartner intervenes. "The test tomorrow is a level higher than normal for normal clones, however you guys have already exceeded expectations and don't need to up your level. But you can if you want to, it'll be a unique experience and a great thing to put on your resume so you aren't stuck on Rishi forever. Up for the challenge?"

"We haven't had a good challenge in quite sometime." CT-4753 says and puts his hand forward.

"If he's in, I'm in." Ace replies and sticks his hand on top of CT-4753's.

"Sounds like fun!" Heavyfire says patting his weapon then putting his hand over Ace's.

"The more targets the better." Sniper adds and puts his hand over Heavyfire's.

Their a pause for a moment and they all look at CT-4755. He's concerned his aiming skills aren't ready for a challenge like that, but slowly he puts his hand on top of Sniper's.

"Perfect! The Generals will be happy to hear this!" Qi announces.

"Now get some rest, you'll need it for sure." Cartner orders.

The clones solute and march to the barracks. When they get there no one else is inside.

"Guess their still training." Sniper suggests.

The others don't answer they just get to their bunks and rest.

6 hours later, they're awaken by shouting. The five open their bunks so they can what's the matter. CT-4753 gets out of his bunk and heads towards the shouting. It's Echo and Droidbait. Again.

"If you would just shut-up for once!"Droidbait shouts.

"At least I'm not always the first one shot down unlike somebody!" Echo shouts back.

The two raise their fists.

"Hey! Hey! Break it up!" CT-4753 shouts, stepping in between the two. They've drawn a crowd now.

"Or what? You'll tell the Jedi?" Echo mocks as he punches him in the side, knocking him to face Droidbait.

"You're nothing but a wimpy scout, constantly reporting every little bit of trouble." Droidbait adds, punching him in the gut.

He falls to the ground. At that, CT-4755 jumps off his bunk while the others don't interfere. Echo goes in for a kick at CT-4753. CT-4755 trips him up before he can kick him however. He then grabs Droidbait and flips him over his shoulder. Then he pins the two to the wall.

"I would like to get some sleep before the final test tomorrow and I recommend you two do the same before you become fish bait and all that we'll have to remember you is your echo." CT-4755 warns.

"Ye-yeah, good idea." Echo replies.

"Good" CT-4755 says as he drops them.

The crowd disperses with murmurs of how CT-4755 got them good. Echo and Droidbait stand up and climb into their bunks. CT-4755 helps CT-4753 up. "You okay CT-4753?" He asks.

"Yeah, and the name's Scout."

In the morning Neon squadron prepares for their final test. Qi shows up and they immediately stand in attention.  
"I have come to escort you to docking bay E." He says.

"Sir, where's Cartner?" Scout asks, knowing he was asking what the others were thinking.

"Escorting Xerox squadron, they will also be participating in the same test. We got a good batch this time _for the most part_." Qi replies. "Alright, follow me."

As they walk past the docking bays, Scout can't help but be anxious, he sees several high commanders and captains with a squad of their own men with them. Sniper begins twitching his fingers and everyone in their squad can hear CT-4755's heavy breathing. If these commanders and captains are monitoring the basic test, some huge Republic commanders and captains must be there for them. Ace starts sweating in his hands, in fact they're all anxious and nervous except Heavyfire. He actually seems excited for the test.

"Aren't you nervous?" Ace whispers to him.

"Not at all, I'm pumped. I memorized the layout of every single simulation, just follow me and we'll be just fine." Heavyfire reassures.

"Alright..." Ace says unsure.

They reach docking bay E where Cartner and Xerox squadron are waiting at attention. They join them in attention as 6 Republic LAAT's land in the docking bay. The passengers exit, and stand at attention at their LAAT, except 4 who get closer to the cadets. Neon squadron all are very confused as to why there were 30 clones troopers at each LAAT except the first one which had the 4 that got closer along with 16 clones's.

"Your test awaits aboard that LAAT." Qi starts. "These four will be the people you take orders from. Understand?"

10 "Yes sir"'s are immediately heard in unison.

"From left to right these leaders are; Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody." Cartner informs.

Rex steps forward. "You two squadrons are the best squadrons in the training course and have accepted the challenge. Neon squadron, Xerox squadron, you're with me and the other leaders in the first LAAT, let's move out!" He orders.

The squads obey and the LAAT's take off. Inside, Cody briefs the cadets on their mission. "Where we are headed is not in the simulations, similar terrain but all new objectives and all new droids." He warns.

"Nervous now?" Ace mumbles to Heavyfire.

"Juuust a little bit." Heavyfire says clenching his gun.

"We'll be on the field as well, with some of our best men." Cody assures. "This test isn't really a test however. A platoon of droids, under the command of General Gervious took over the outpost controlling our power in all the major Kamino cities yesterday. We need it back."

"We've got 180 of us now and you guys will join us on the raid. Rex has all the details." Anakin adds.

"The mission is simple, clear the outpost of all of the droids. Xerox squadron, when we launch our attack the droids will start to push towards our transports. We'll have most of the attention but not all of it. You will be required to defend the ships. Neon squadron, once we're inside you 5 will go on a stealth mission to the control room and disable the shields that block us from getting to the rest of the outpost. We're stuck in the landing bays if you can't disable the shields but we have confidence you 5 can do it. Once the shields are down you will join us for our final assault in the arena where Grievous and his bodyguards will be waiting some important things for you guys to know, Super Battle Droids have rapid fire and stronger armor, however if you hit their head it's an immediate kill. Commando Droids are swift and agile. One good hit and their down, but their lethal with any kind of weapon, don't let them get close. Droidekas have a shield that stops quick movements, however, slow movements pass right through it. The bodyguards are just droids with electric staffs. Chances are you'll survive one or two hits, anymore and you are toast. Alright men, we're getting close, good luck!" Rex informs.

The next few minutes are pretty tense, no one says a word and just prays that they won't have their ship shot down. Sniper is beginning to wish he hadn't taken this up and that CT-4755 was right, they weren't ready. Heavyfire was the only one who was distracted. He was still caught up on having to be on a stealth mission. Not his forte. Scout would have to lead this one, and Heavyfire was used to him or Ace taking up that role. Now, he is nervous.

The landing was surprisingly easy to get to as if they weren't expecting such an early ambush. As the LAAT doors open, they're met with immediate heavy fire. The clones react immediately, pushing forward to wipe out the droids. The Jedi jump in front and start protecting the clones. Heavyfire watches as another clone in blue armor with a machine gun like his pushes forward in front of the Jedi. Heavyfire instinctively follows him and joins him for the push.

"Welcome to combat!" The clone says to him.

"Thanks! I'm Heavyfire, pleased to meet you!" He replies.

"Same to you! The names Hardcase, now follow me!" Hardcase orders.

Hardcase runs straight at the droids and Heavyfire follows closely. They dive behind some crates, now they're behind the droids.

"The others know what we're up to but still remember to be careful!" Hardcase says as he prepares to shoot the droids from behind.

"Eh, carefulness is over rated!" Heavyfire says as they open fire on the droids.

They're in the open but the droids don't have time to react and are quickly shot down before they can face the 2 heavy's. As the last few droids fall, the medics start collecting the dead and wounded.

"Sir! 14 deaths, 20 wounded. All the cadets are fine." One reports to the Jedi, Rex and Cody.

"Thanks Kix." Rex says.

"Alright this is where Neon squadron comes into action. Neon squadron! It's go time!" Cody orders.

Neon squadron solutes and heads to the vent where they were instructed to climb through. They didn't send everyone through the vents as they would be slaughtered one by one if they were to be caught. Scout is in the front, it's a tight squeeze but they make it through the vent slowly.

"Do you know where your going?" Ace asks Scout after they take another turn.

"A clone named Waxer gave me the directions. Left, right, left, left, right, left." Scout replies.

"Alright..." Heavyfire says uneasily from the back.

"How much further do you think it'll be?" Sniper asks Scout.

"Definitely another 5 minutes at least." Scout answers.

"How far from the vent is the control room?" CT-4755 asks.

Heavyfire knows the answer to this one. "This vent will actually take us right inside of the control room."

"Expect a few commandos down there. The vent will drop us from the ceiling, the commandos will be surprised for a moment, we'll have to act quickly!" Ace reminds.

"Shouldn't be a problem." Heavyfire replies.

"Guys we're close, quiet down." Scout warns.

"I got a bad feeling about this..." CT 4755 says.

Everyone grows quiet as they travel through the last little bit. They reach the grate and they all stop.

"Here goes nothing." Scout whispers as he lifts up the grate. "Now!" He whispers.

The 5 jump out one at a time and open fire on the commandos. 5 ironically survive and target each of Neon squadron. Scout and Ace stick together as the droids jump at him. Scout gets pinned to the wall by a commando. Ace and his commando are interlocked in hands. Scout raises his gun as he struggles to breath. The way his arm is pinned he can't shoot his own commando but he can shoot Ace's. He fires, killing the commando. Ace immediately tackles Scouts commando and shots it. Scout falls to the ground and Ace goes to help him. Sniper and CT-4755 fire at their commandos as they close in on each other, the droids start jumping everywhere, Sniper hits his while CT-4755 tackles the other and shoots it. Heavyfire tries to shoot his but his gun is knocked out of his hands by the droid. Heavyfire tries fighting it with his fists but it's hopeless. The droid starts to strangle Heavyfire and raises it's gun right as Ace shoots the droid.

"Guess you're a little too reliant on your weapon." Ace jokes.

"Shut up Ace." Heavyfire snorts.

"Alright, let's see here..." CT-4755 says, brushing his fingers over the buttons.

"One of these switches or buttons disable the shields..." Scout adds.

After about 10 minutes of searching Sniper finds it.

"Uh... slight problem..." Sniper says.

"What...?" Scout asks.

"The uh... switch is uh... broken. The droids must've destroyed it." Sniper reports.

At that moment Ace receives a comm-link call, Rex is calling. He answers it.

"The droids are slowly pushing forward and we starting to take casualties! Have you got to the shield controls?" Rex asks.

"Uh, sort of?" Ace replies. "The uh, droids kind of... broke the controls."

"Don't worry though! We have a plan. I can take down the shields from the docking bay. I was reading some of the controls and what they do before hand. It's like a pass time to me." CT-4755 says.

"Do it." Rex says and hangs up.

"Well, back into the vents." Heavyfire sighs and pushes CT-4755 into the vent. The others follow.

As they rush back through the vents Sniper and Scout can't help but feel nervous as they may have jeopardized the assault. Ace knows that the only shut down to the shield was the one that's destroyed. He's confused as to CT-4755's plan.

"CT-4755 what's your plan?" Heavyfire asks.

"The shield is used for lock downs to keep droids out. However the clones inside have their DNA inside the shield memory. So theoretically if one of us were to run into it, it should go into override and the shield should go down." CT-4755 answers.

"Don't you think the others would've tried that?!" Heavyfire shoots back.

"No one has ever tried. If I'm wrong I die." CT-4755 replies.

"Is it worth the risk!?" Heavyfire asks.

"To save our home? Hell yeah. It is." He answers.

After he says this they reach the exit and CT-4755 acts immediately. As he runs towards the shield Ace starts to run after him. Heavyfire stops him.

"He's got a plan, he knows the risk, he's saving our home..." Heavyfire says.

As he runs towards the shield, several clones try to stop him, but he shoves them all out of the way. "Live to fight another day boys." He says and runs into the shield. A loud sizzling is heard between the shield, and all of CT-4755's armor immediately incinerates into ash, but he himself makes it through, the shield turns off and he collapses. The clones charge through the newly created pathway. Xerox squadron carries CT-4755 to the rest of the injured clones. As they leave Sniper catches one of Xerox's members arm.

"Keep him safe." He says.

"We'll do what we can." The clone says.

"What's your name?" Sniper asks.

"CT-4752, my nickname is Tick." Tick answers.

"Well than "Tick" let me put it this way. I will personally end you if he dies." Sniper says and runs to join the others.

In the front of the pack, Rex, Cody and the Jedi run as Ace catches up.

"Why'll we were in the control room we found where all the droids are positioned. If we enter the arena, the droids that are hiding in the lower levels, will encircle us inside there and wipe us out. If you were to send some of our forces towards the droids that are hiding then we could take Grievous down easier and we stand a better chance at success." He informs to the Jedi.

"I like your thinking, Cody, take the clones and remove the droids. Rex, you, your squad and Neon squadron will come with us." Obi-Wan orders.

The clones nod and Cody gives the order. Cody and the others leave down to the lower levels of the outpost. Heavyfire loves the idea that on his first mission he'll get to kill one of Grievous's bodyguards. From what he's heard, most clones will never even get that chance. Hardcase is there next to him, along with two other clones. Kix, the medic from earlier, and a clone with the Galactic Republic emblem on his helmet.

"Who's he?" Heavyfire asks Hardcase, pointing at the other clone.

"He's Jesse, you'll never meet a more skilled clone on the field." Hardcase replies.

Next to Jesse is Scout, Scout was definitely anxious. Grievous was part of his first mission. Scout must've been doing something to tip Jesse off that he was nervous because the clone started talking to him.

"Hey, don't worry, if you screw up chances are I'll kill them before your dead. You may be a little damaged though." Jesse jokes.

"I take it your sense of humor is all you got going for ya?" Scout jokes back.

"Try and keep up cadet! The names Jesse!" Jesse informs.

"Please! This is to easy! I'm Scout!" Scout replies.

"Droidekas! Cover now!" Rex shouts.

The clones react immediately ducking to the sides behind pillars while the Jedi start deflecting the droidekas laser blasts. Ace watches as Rex does some strange hand signals to Jesse and Hardcase. Hardcase hands them both droid poppers. Rex and Jesse start to sneak closer to the droidekas and they roll the poppers into their shields. The poppers go off and the droidekas disable.

"Super battle droids incoming!" Heavyfire warns.

The Super battle droids move in with brute force, overwhelming the clones. Scout had never seen a droid that could withstand so many blasts. There are to many of the droids and on top of that, normal battle droids are moving in from behind. Cody and the others must have missed a few of the hidden squads.

"Pop 'em now!" Rex orders.

Hardcase throws 2 poppers at the super battle droids and 2 at the battle droids. This demobilizes half of the droids.

"Sir we only have 3 left. Do we save them for the Grievous or do we take down the rest of the droids with 'em?" Hardcase asks.

"I don't think we have a choice!" Anakin answers.

"Throw 'em Hardcase!" Rex orders.

Hardcase smiles and throws the poppers wiping the rest of the droids out.

"Let's move!" Obi-Wan orders.

They reach the arena elevator and try to open it.

"Locked, blast!" Kix shouts frustrated.

"I may be able to bypass it if we have a little bit of time." Scout offers.

"Do it." Anakin orders.

"Yes sir!" He replies.

Obi-Wan activates his communicator. "Cody, we've reached the arena and are attempting entry now. How are things over with you?" He asks.

"Good sir! We're almost through! We've taken heavy casualties though, only 23 of us remain fit for battle. Most of us are alive though, some are pretty roughed up." Cody reports.

"Keep it up, once you've finished off the droids, collect the wounded and get out of here." Obi-Wan orders.

"But sir, what about you?" Cody asks.

"I'm sure you won't fill all the LAAT's, leave 2 pilots and a few clones to be ready when we come back. _With Grievous."_ Obi-Wan answers.

"Yes sir, Cody out." Cody responds.

"Sir! I got the door open! However, the elevator isn't working!" Scout reports.

"Guess we're climbing." Anakin says.

"Scout, stay here and fix the elevator. Jesse, you stay with him." Rex orders.

"Yes sir!" The two reply and Scout gets to work.

The rest of their team goes through the ceiling hatch in the elevator, fire their extension cables and starts to climb the elevator shaft. As the clones climb up, Sniper and Kix take up the rear.

"So, what happens if they cut the cables?" Sniper asks.

"Well chances are you die, unless your friend Scout can get the elevator to rise." Kix replies.

"Wait, what about the droids in the arena that are part of the simulations?" Ace asks the generals.

"I've been doing a little work and the droids should be attacking the bodyguards and Grievous as we speak." Anakin answers.

"Very good sir." Ace replies and they continue to climb.

As they get closer, the sound of blaster fire gets louder and louder, then it stops.

"Well your little toys didn't do to well did they?" Obi-Wan jokes.

"Hey, what can you expect? They're droids." Anakin replies.

The team is very close to the top when they hear the doors to the elevator from the arena open.

"Faster men!" Anakin orders.

The clones pick up the pace but Grievous peeks over.

"General Kenobi! Skywalker!" He says.

"Pleasure meeting you here, in _our_ home." Sniper snorts.

"What's this? 3 cadets? Make that 2!" Grievous says and cuts Snipers extension cable.

He screams as he falls but Obi-Wan catches him with the force and lays him just above the elevator.

"2 heavy's? That's to many!" Grievous taunts and cuts Hardcases extension cable.

He is also caught by the force.

"Kenobi!" Grievous shouts frustrated.

Obi-Wan reaches within just a few feet of Grievous. Grievous cuts the line and as Kenobi falls he forces pushes Grievous right into the observation tower. Then Anakin catches him with the force. Obi-Wan lands on top of the elevator with Sniper and Hardcase. The elevator moves up about half way then stops.

"Great, now we're stuck." Sniper says as Obi-Wan jumps into the elevator and Hardcase starts to follow.

"At least get inside the elevator in case it goes the rest of the way and you're flattened." Hardcase points out.

"Yeah yeah." Sniper replies.

Anakin and the 4 clones finally reach the top of the elevator and begin to open fire on the bodyguards. Ace shoot one of the bodyguards in the head and it falls off.

"Ha!" He shouts celebrating his kill when the droid starts to attack him again.

"Oh kriff!" Ace shouts and continues to fire at the headless droid.

"Rex, do you think you can deal with these guys?" Anakin asks.

"Yes sir, we'll take care of them." Rex answers.

"Alright, I'm going for Grievous!" Anakin replies and jumps up to the observation tower where Grievous is recovering.

Heavyfire had never predicted how tough the bodyguards would be. He was running out of ammo and he knew it. Kix seems to be doing well with his droid. He has the droids staff and the droid was starting to go ballistic. Rex and his droid are now engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and well Ace is, held up. Ace jumps on top of the bodyguards back and grabs its staff and knocks it out of its hand. The droid flips Ace over his shoulder and starts trying to punch him but Ace is dodging them. Heavyfire throws his gun at his own droid, knocking the staff out of its hands as well. He goes for punches but both his fists are caught by the droid in a dead lock. Rex kills his droid and so does Kix. Ace grabs the severed head of the bodyguard and jabs it into the bodyguards chest, killing it. Heavyfire jumps and kicks his droid, ripping the arms out of their sockets and stabs them through the bodyguard.

Back in the hall, Scout works at the controls while Jesse patrols the halls. He sees a bodyguard droid and he immediately hides in cover. The droid sees him as he hid and so the droid attacks him, punching him in the gut and holding him and in a head lock with its staff. Jesse lets out a groan and this gets Scouts attention from the other hall.

"Jesse? You okay?" He asks.

"Yup! Everything fine!" Jesse says as he struggles to breathe.

"You sound a little exasperated. What happened?" Scout asks.

"Yeah just catching up with the mission, heh. Just get that elevator working." Jesse answers.

"Alright..." Scout says.

Jesse jabs at the droid with the his gun, causing it to release him and drop its staff. Jesse catches the staff and impales the droid with it. Jesse relaxes and walks back over to Scout.

"I got the elevator working, should we get up there?" Scout asks.

"Negative. The elevator is already moving and if Grievous gets there first we have to be ready to catch him, weapons set to heavy stun." Jesse orders.

Back in the arena, Grievous jumps out of the tower missing 3 arms. He starts running for the elevator and the clones open fire on him. He jumps and kicks Rex and Kix while Heavyfire throws his gun at Grievous and Ace hit the cyborg in the back, causing him to stagger. Anakin jumps from the tower and chases Grievous, the cyborg reaches the elevator which opens, where Sniper and Hardcase are waiting with Obi-Wan. Grievous lets out a shout of frustration and uses his lightsaber to quickly cut a circle in the floor. He falls down the hole with Jesse and Scout waiting who also open fire on him. Scouts laser bolt is deflected by Grievous and hits him in the arm. Jesse's bolt hit Grievous in the arm, causing him to lose his arm. He kicks Jesse back into the wall and he runs to the emergency escape room, where he jumps into an escape pod and launches it into the sky, using his feet to drive.

Back in the docking bay, what's left of Xerox squad and a few other clones are holding off the last few droids left on the base. An escape pod passes by and a few clones turn to fire at it but are shot from behind, killing them.

"Denal! Duck!" One clone shouts.

Denal ducks and a torpedo passes right over his head. "Thanks Kano." He says.

"Hawk, prepare to take off, the Jedi will be here soon! Waxer, Boil, use the last of our droid poppers to take them down! Kano, Denal, sneak behind the droids and fire on my mark. Xerox squadron, provide cover fire for them! Go! Go! Go!" Cody orders.

"Yes sir!" The clones reply.

Waxer and Boil start throwing poppers while Denal and Kano sneak behind the forces, the popper take down just over half the droids.

"That's all of them commander!" Waxer informs.

"Now!" Cody shouts.

Denal and Kano open fire on the droids from behind.

"Now we got 'em!" Denal celebrates.

The docking bay doors open and the Jedi run in with the rest of the clones, swiftly destroying the last few droids.

"I assume by the look of it, you didn't get Grievous..." Cody says.

"We've got, well, just under half of him." Obi-Wan replies and Scout holds up Grievous' arms.

"On the bright side, all of the escape pods have tracking beacons." Kano reminds.

"Yeah, uh Grievous must've had his droids remove them before we arrived..." Scout adds as he checks the control panels.

"Great, just great." Rex says sarcastically.

"Well, at least we've got this outpost back." Hardcase says.

"Yes, in that sense, the mission was a success." Obi-Wan answers.

"Well, then let's prepare to head back to the facility." Anakin says.

"We lost three members of our squad." One of Xerox squadron reports.

"Only myself and Trick survived." The other adds.

"As unfortunate as that is, the two of you, along with Neon squadron are now officially soldiers of the Galactic Republic!" Obi-Wan congratulates.

"Thank you sir!" The 7 reply.

"Alright, lets go home boys!" Rex orders.

The clones and the Jedi board the LAAT and it takes off. With the cadets now shiny's, their journey, has only begun.


	2. The Other Rishi Moon Base

After their graduation, the cadets are all sent to the Rishi moon as shiny's to the two outposts. Half are sent to the listening post to check for invaders while the other half is sent to the broadcasting station.

"This is your broadcasting station live! Us up on the Rishi moon, now bring you the weather! Across the planet today is lots of sun and not much of anything else. The temperature still hasn't changed from last week, in fact from what our forecast tells us, more sun for the next week! This drought better end soon, or even your moon will have no water! Ha ha! Now for the meteor report, as if we didn't have enough problems already. 89% of a meteor shower will, 45% of these will hit the ground at a velocity that can cause minor injuries except your head, yeah you'll need umbrella's for them! 7% however, will hit the surface and can cause some large damage in half a rotation. Make sure you are inside for those big guys. This has been your weather forecast from your defenders of your system! Have a great day from the Rishi moon outposts, this is CT-4755, out!" He says over a communicator, broadcasting to the planet.

"Of all the places we could've been sent for our rookie mission, why did it have to be here?" Heavyfire asks with boredom as he spins around in his chair.

"At least we're only here for a few more days." Scout adds.

"Toxic squadron on deck!" Sniper announces.

5 clone troopers in green armor walk on deck and each of the rookies stand at attention.

"At ease troopers." The captain orders. "Today is one of your last days left on Rishi, if you would like, you may hit the rec room. Congratulations on passing inspection, a job truly well done. Whilst you are on free time myself and my men will command the station. As a reward for doing so well, understood?"

"Yes sir!" The rookies reply.

"Dismissed!" The captain orders.

The rookies solute and exit the control room. The Toxic squadron had been assigned to this moon after 2 separatist cruisers were spotted a few systems away. Toxic squadron is one of the best clone squadrons accepted into the army. Toxic squadron is part of Green Company lead by General Unduli, if any squad can take on an army of droids, it's them. Toxic squad takes position and gets to work.

"Captain Chase, meteors!" One clone says.

"Forward shields up! Brawn, warn the clones in the rec room to brace for impact!" Chase orders.

"Yes sir!" Brawn replies and runs to the rec room.

The rookie clones are just preparing to start up the simulators when Brawn runs in.

"Hurry men! Brace for impact!" He orders.

The clones quickly head to their seats by the walls and strap themselves in.

"The meteors weren't supposed come down for another few hours." Scout mutters to CT-4755.

Back in the command center, Toxic squad is preparing for the shower.

"Sir! Shields at 100%!" Krivv reports.

"Rift, Dragger, get to the canons and prepare to fire once in range!" Chase orders.

"Yes sir!" The two reply and run to the canons.

"Canons, armed and ready to fire!" Dragger reports.

"Ready when you are!" Rift says to Dragger.

"Meteors in range!" Krivv reports.

"Fire at will!" Chase orders.

Rift and Dragger fire at the meteors, quickly and swiftly hitting them but the meteors are unaffected.

"Uh sir, the uh, meteors are kind of um..." Dragger reports.

"Spit it out trooper!" Chase orders, he can see the meteors now.

"Not, affected by our lasers." Dragger finishes.

"If we were to fire at the side of the meteors we may be able to move them away from the station." Rift suggests.

"Do it quickly!" Chase orders.

Brawn runs in as Dragger and Rift target the the sides of the larger meteors first.

"Sir we'll be able to knock away the large meteors but the small ones will still hit us." Rift informs.

"Let's hope these shields will hold!" Chase says.

The big meteors crash first, next to the base while hundreds of smaller meteors hit the shield, some hit the base. The base shakes for a moment and the lights flicker but stay on.

"Damage report." Chase orders.

"A few of the meteors got through our shield but no damage was taken, everything is as it should be." Krivv replies.

"Brawn, see if you can get a sample of one the meteors, let's figure out why our meteor canons couldn't penetrate it." Chase orders.

"Yes sir!" He replies and heads to the landing bay.

Outside of the station, there's a lot of meteor rocks scattered all over the dock. Brawn walks out and takes a look around. He picks up parts of one of the rocks and dusts it off. Behind the scorch marks is a Separatist emblem. Commando droids start to get on the dock and aim at him.

"Well, shit." He says and dives at one of the commando droids and uses it as a shield. It's immediately shot down by the other droids. Brawn shoots down another 2 before diving out of the way. The commandos continue to fire at the crates he's hiding behind. There's another 18 commando droids out there, Brawn jumps out and fires as he runs to more crates. 3 more are shot down, Brawn keeps firing from behind his cover. The commando droids are jumping around as they fire, making it harder for Brawn to shoot them down. One commando throws a thermal detonator at Brawn, who catches it and throws it back at the droids, killing 5 more. "10 down, 10 to go!" He shouts as he shoots at the droids. He takes down another 5 before one headlocks him. He flips the droid over his shoulder and throws the droid at another droid and Brawn shoots down another. Another thermal detonator is thrown and Brawn catches it again and throws it back. "Your mistake." He taunts as the last of the droids explode. "Heh, gotcha." He says and he activates his comm link. "Sir, the meteors were droid transports. I just took down 20 commando droids. I'm headed back in-" Brawn is cut off my the sound of a lightsaber activating behind him and straight through his chest. The red blade deactivates and Brawn drops to the ground.

"Brawn? Brawn respond! Respond trooper! That's an-" Chase is also cut of by the lightsaber wielder who breaks Brawn's comm link.

Around 100 more commando droids climb up next to the lightsaber wielder.

"Mistress, lord Dooku is contacting you." One droid informs.

"Put it through." She replies.

The droid puts the hologram projector on the ground and a Dooku hologram appears.

"Ventress, have you arrived on the dock successfully?" Dooku asks.

"Yes master." Ventress answers.

"Very good, contact me when you have the base under your control." Dooku replies.

"Yes, my lord." Ventress answers and the hologram disappears. "Let's move."

In the command center, the rest of Toxic squadron is holding position ready to hold of the droids and Ventress.

"Remember, if the lightsaber wielder has the force, magnetize your boots." Chase reminds.

"Good luck you all!" Rift wishes.

Ventress cuts open the door and the clones magnetize their boots. The clones open fire on the droids and take down quite a few droids before they have to start moving. Ventress activates her lightsabers and charge at Chase who jumps out of the way. As the battle ensues, the clones take down most of the droids before Ventress throws her lightsabers at Dragger who dodges the first saber but the second one cuts off his head. The clones hit Ventress once in the arm before she gets her lightsabers back and does the same thing to Krivv. Leaving just Chase and Rift to fight of the droids.

"If I go down, tell the shiny's to evacuate the station! Then you leave as well." Chase orders.

"Yes sir!" Rift says back as he shoots Ventress again in the shoulder.

"Only 14 droids left!" Chase announces.

"We'll get promoted after this one!" Rift jokes.

Ventress stabs Chase and Rift immediately orders the shiny's to evacuate using the comm system and begins to fall back towards the exit but commando droids sneak behind him and shoot him down. In the rec room the shiny's start to exit through the vent as the commando droids enter the rec room. The droids fire at the clones who haven't entered the vent yet, killing them.

"Hurry! Hurry!" The clones in the vents shout and they hurry through the vents.

The droids fire inside the vents, killing a couple of clones and the rest escape. Ventress enters the room and the droids report to her.

"Of the 30 clone rookies, 8 escaped." The droid reports.

"They do not matter, 8 clones can't retake this base. Call in the rest of the droids." Ventress orders.

"Yes mistress." The droid replies.

Outside the base, the 8 clones stand on the edge of a cliff next to a large cave. All of Neon squadron, Xerox squadron, (Trick and Charger) and one other named Young.

"What are we going to do now?" Heavyfire asks.

"We should get to the listening post. Young, where's the quickest way there?" Ace asks.

"Through the caves." Young replies.

"Aren't there eels in there?" Scout asks.

"Yes, but it saves 14 rotations of travel." Young says back and heads to the cave, an eel comes out of the cave and grabs Young with it's mouth.

"Young!" Trick shouts as the clones fire at the eel.

The eel retreats with Young back into the cave. The clones sigh and salute to Young.

"I guess we're going around." Sniper states.

"Or, we could take back the base. Chances are, they've been invaded as well." Charger suggests.

"Charger has a point, if we want to warn the Republic we have to take back this base." Trick adds.

"Uh, hello? There's a Sith assassin in there!" CT-4755 points out.

"She didn't look to hard to kill." Heavyfire jokes.

"I've got an idea. The Jedi always say their lightsaber is their life, I'd imagine it's the same for the sith." Trick starts.

"So if we can take her lightsabers and get them lost, we can get her away, long enough to take back the base and send out a distress call beacon." Scout finishes.

"Exactly! I say, two of us head through the vent to the command center and wait for her to put her lightsabers down, then we act." Trick suggests.

"I'll do it, stealth is one of my strong points." Scout offers.

"It'll be dangerous, you'll need someone to cover your tail and I'm the best at aiming." Sniper states.

"It's settled then. Good luck, we'll set up a missile to strap the lightsabers to. That way she'll be gone quite a while." Heavyfire says.

"Alright, lets move!" CT-4755 orders.

Scout never thought that on his second mission he'd be fighting another lightsaber wielder, and this time they didn't have 2 Jedi to help them. Sniper was frustrated that they had so few days left until their mission was over, and now they may never leave this rock hell. With Scout in the front, Sniper also felt safer because if anyone was going to die it was Scout not him. He didn't like the thought of Scout dying, but Sniper desperately wants to get off this moon.

"Alright, we're here." Scout whispers to Sniper. "I see the target, it seems that she's talking to a commando droid."

"All droids except for you, please exit the command center, this is a classified conversation about the other base." Ventress orders.

The droids leave, leaving just Ventress and the commando general.

"Forces on the other base have been intercepted by a few of the clones." The commando says.

"Get behind that command table so that you're ready to grab the sabers." Sniper suggests.

Scout obliges to the suggestion and gets out of the vent and behind the table.

"Some very advanced clones were there, suggesting that they found us somehow, Dooku believes that a tracking device may be hidden on you somewhere." The droid continues.

"Improbable, but still possible." Ventress replies.

"Please take off all metal so that I can preform a scan to search for the tracking device." The droid finishes.

"By all means." She answers and take of all metal belongings and places them on the table.

This is Scout's chance, he carefully reaches over the table while the droid scans Ventress. He grabs them and quickly heads back to the vent. However, when putting the vent grate back onto the wall he made a small noise. Ventress looks over and Sniper and Scout make a dash for it.

"Shoot them! Now!" She orders the droid.

The droid runs to the vent, takes the grate of the wall and fires, but it's to late. The clones have escaped.

"That was close." Scout says, exiting the vent.

"Yeah you could say that." Sniper replies.

The others go up to them.

"Did you get them?" Ace asks.

"Yup." Scout says and shows them.

"Great, we got the missile ready." Heavyfire informs.

"Perfect, let's strap these on it then prepare to talk to Ventress." Sniper orders.

"Let's go." Trick says.

They get the lightsabers attached to the rocket and then call Ventress with a hologram projector.

"Fire the missile." Trick orders.

CT-4755 does so and in the process turns his boot into ash. Scout calls Ventress.

"If you ever want to see your lightsabers again, they're one that missile." Scout says and shows her the flying missile. "It will crash in 37 minutes, so I'd advise you get them now rather than later."

Ventress shouts with frustration but soon enough, a ship is headed in the direction of the missile.

"Let's hope that's Ventress, piloting that ship." Charger says.

"Well, our time is limited, we need to act now!" Trick says.

"We should split up, that way we can divide their forces, 3 through the vent to the command center, 4 go up to the main entrance." CT-4755 suggests.

"I like your thinking CT-4755." Trick says.

"Myself and Scout plus one other should go through the vent, I can aim pretty well and Scout can sneak through and catch the droids by surprise with one other..." Sniper volunteers.

"I'll do it." Trick also volunteers.

"We'll start the attack on the dock before you enter the vent. Wait for the signal." Heavyfire orders.

"Signal?" Scout asks.

"You'll know it when you see it." Heavyfire answers, patting his bag of thermal detonators.

"Oh boy." Ace says shaking his head.

"Good luck." Trick adds.

"Alright, let's move!" CT-4755 orders and the 4 clones head for the docking platform.

Free climbing the cliff to the docking platform was harder than Ace had expected. They all have to be careful or they will fall to their deaths.

"Why again, aren't we using our cables?" Charger asks. "Climbing isn't my strong suit."

"Because the droids are scanning for interference in case we come back, we can't have them know we're coming until we're on the deck." Ace replies. He's the lowest of the four on the cliff.

Heavyfire reaches the top of the cliff but doesn't touch the platform. He helps the others get up but doesn't get up himself. Instead he holds himself under the dock and starts putting thermal detonators underneath the dock.

"Are you crazy!?" Ace asks.

"We can't let more droids from those transports land here. My plan is to draw as many commandos onto the dock before I blow it up. Our goal is to take the droids out and get ourselves in." Heavyfire replies and gestures to the two droid transports.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Ace says not approvingly.

The doors to the outpost open and Charger shouts. "Droids incoming!"

"Fall back! Let the droids get out here!" Ace orders as he dives behind some crates.

The other 2 obey and follow suit while the droids get closer. Ace shoots down a few droids, one of which has wires in it's hands but Ace doesn't care, he's to focused on surviving.

"Anytime, Heavyfire!" Ace says urgently.

"Head for the doors and brace for impact!" Heavyfire orders.

Ace nods and signals to the other two to get to the doors. They make a run for it from the sides and fire at the droids. They get to inside and duck into cover, the droids are now shooting them from inside the base and out.

"Great! Now we're surrounded!" CT-4755 points out, angry.

"We gotta trust Heavyfire." Ace replies. "Show a little faith."

"55 is right! We need an alternate plan, NOW!" Charger says.

"Give him just a little more time..." Ace replies.

Heavyfire flips over the dock, dives into the entrance and gets into cover as he detonates the thermal detonators. The dock explodes, taking the droids with it in a fiery plummet down to the ground.

"Alright boys, we hold here t'ill the others take the command center!" Heavyfire announces.

Scout, Trick and Sniper wait by the vent, still wondering what Heavyfire's signal is. They see a large explosion from the front of the base.

"Guess that's our signal! Go! Go! Go!" Scout shouts and they get into the vents.

They rush through the vent quietly, not sparing anytime to readjusting into a more comfortable position. They reach the command center and immediately open fire, taking down any and all droids in the area.

"That was easy, Heavyfire's distraction must've really got their attention." Trick states.

"Yeah..." Scout says as he looks around at the main controls. "We've got a problem, the droids broke the controls forcing the all clear signal to stay on."

"Can you fix it?" Trick asks.

"I'll need some time, you and Sniper go on without me." Scout says.

"You got it." Trick replies.

The two run off and Scout opens up the control panel, some wires are cut out. "Kriff!" He shouts, realizing that it can't be fixed, Scout activates his comm link. "One of the droids have wires in it's hands, we need them to turn the all clear signal off." He says into the comm link. Ace replies.

"Yeah.. uh Heavyfire may have just blown them up..." Ace replies.

"Well I guess we have to hold out until the Republic arrives in two rotations to pick us up." Scout responds.

"But once those droid forces report the problem and Ventress returns we're screwed." Ace states.

"You gotta better idea? Those eels will eat us up in just a few hours." Scout asks.

"Are the communications systems still functioning?" Ace asks.

"Yeah I'll give it a go and try to get a hold of the other Rishi Moon base, hopefully they're alive." Scout answers, he activates the communicator but receives no signal. "There's no signal at all, it's as if the station isn't even there!"

"What!? The droids wouldn't have blown up the station, something must've happened." Ace replies. "How much time do we have left until Ventress arrives?"

"7 minutes. We gotta act fast!" Scout answers.

"We have 2 meteor canons, perhaps we could try and shoot Ventress' ship down." Ace suggests.

"Do it! Scanners are picking up several droids closing in, get to the rest of your team to the barracks to stock up and then prepare for battle! Scout out." Scout answers.

Ace shoots down the last droid and runs to the other clones.

"Trick, Charger, to the meteor canons, shoot down Ventress' ship, that'll detour her a little longer. The rest of you, with me to the barracks to stock up." Ace orders.

The clones nod and Neon squad runs to the barracks. The adrenaline pumping through the clones is astronomical. Heavyfire has never been more excited, he's about to defend an entire base against hundreds of droids with just a few other clones. It's they're time to shine! They reach the barracks, Heavyfire immediately grabs 2 Z-6's, (rotary blaster canons) one he straps to his back and the other in his arms. Sniper grabs a DC-15A (a blaster rifle) and thermal detonators as Ace grabs 2 DC-17's (hand pistols). CT-4755 grabs something different, he loads full fuel canisters and thermal detonators into a pack and he puts it on his back. He also grabs a flamethrower and pats his weapon. "I'm gonna turn those first battalions into ash." He tells the other clones.

"Ash, seems to be something you create a lot." Sniper points out.

"Ash..." CT-4755 responds. "I like the sound of that!"

"Well then, Ash. Put your plan into place!" Ace orders and they run back to the front entrance to prepare for the droids.

Trick and Charger use the canons to hit Asajj Ventress' ship. Charger hits it and it starts to sputter. "Nice shot!" Trick congratulates as the ship crashes into the moon. An explosion can be seen from where they are. "I'd say, Charger I think you just killed a Sith."

Ash takes out his fuel canisters and starts pouring them all over the floor from the entrance to as far as the fuel can reach down the hallway while the clones stay away from the fuel. The last canister empties and Ash takes his thermal detonators and scatters them through out the fuel. He grabs his flamethrower and stands in front of the fuel, he puts his finger on the trigger. The front door opens and fuel starts to pour down the cliff as the droids start to reach the top of the cliff.

"You should learn to knock." Ash reminds the droids and pulls the trigger, flames engulf the hallway and the fuel pours out of the base in a fiery waterfall. This utterly decimates the first wave of droids, but just as the fire goes out, the droids start entering once again.

"Open fire!" Ace orders as the droids start to push forward. The amount of droids is over-whelming and they all know it. "Ash, I need you to run back and get more detonators and fuel!" Ace shouts and Ash nods and starts running back to the barracks. "Give him cover-fire!" The droids push forward and Trick and Charger joins Neon squadron in the hallway.

"We got the ship down, we won't be seeing her anymore!" Trick reports as they try and hold their ground. Ace nods as he shoots down another droid. B-1 battle droids are pushing forward steadily, that's the only kind that any of them have seen in this battle. "Where the hell is Ash!?" Trick shouts as fuel starts pouring through the vents.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Ace orders and the clones run away from the vents and into the control room. They look into the hallway where hundreds of droids are burning. "That'a boy Ash." Ace mutters as they seal the door to the control room.

"How's Ash supposed to get back?" Sniper asks as Scout and Charger seal the door.

"He told me that he had a plan and that we've got to seal every entrance and exit for it to work. Scout replies and he goes to seal the vents.

"I hate it when he says he has a plan." Ace says.

"What is he doing..." Sniper asks himself.

Ash stands in the armory, waiting for the droids to find him. All the fuel canisters have been emptied and all the thermal detonators have been activated. and ready to blow at the push of the button. He stands over an emergency launch pad. He hopes that this won't kill him, he's pretty sure that this was meant for the service droids but he doesn't have much of a choice now. By now, the other clones should be sealed in the control room. He holds his flamethrower tight, ready to use the droids enter the room. "Adios." He says and launches, then he presses the detonate button and the base starts to blow up. The ejection goes well, it was meant for the service droids but lucky for him there was a rock underneath the moon base not to far down. The armory is completely destroyed in the detonation and Ash watches as it blows up the halls connected to it. The entire base shakes from the explosion and Ash can only hope that his plan worked.

"Drop your weapon!" A B-1 battle droid says from behind Ash. He turns around to see at least 20 droids, to many for him to deal with, with no cover. He lowers his weapon and the droids put a gun to his face. "Clone trooper scum." The droid says, about to fire.

"What the hell was that?!" Trick asks.

"I dunno, but it sounds like fun!" Heavyfire replies and the lights start blaring red, emergency systems are taking over. A lightsaber starts to penetrate the door. It looks red which means Ventress is back.

"Well, so much for killing her." Trick jokes to Charger, who just rolls his eyes underneath his helmet.

"Prepare to open fire on my mark." Ace orders and holds one arm up. The lightsaber gets closer to making the circle. "3..." The saber gets closer. "2..." The saber finishes the circle. "1! Fire!" Ace points to the door and the clones open fire.

"Hey! Hold your fire!" A familiar voice shouts.

"Hold your fire!" Ace orders. "General Skywalker?"

"That's right, we're here to get you out of here." Anakin replies.

"Don't worry, we got Ash, that's how we knew where you were." Jesse says as he enters with more of the 501st. Ash walks up to them and they congratulate him.

"You 7 showed great valor on the battlefield today, and for that, all 7 of you will be joining the 501st! Welcome aboard men!" Anakin informs. Neon and Xerox squadron cheer with pride.

"General, did anyone survive from the other base?" Sniper asks.

"Yes, just two of them, Echo and Fives." Jesse replies.

"Well then, I guess we better get up there and talk to them." Heavyfire suggests.

"Yeah, you guys get loaded up. I'll give the mission report." Scout says and the other clones leave.

"General, Trick and Charger shot down Asajj Ventress' ship and we believe her to be dead, but we're not sure. Should we take a quick look?" Scout asks.

"You and your team will go back to the cruiser, I will check it out with Jesse." Anakin replies.

"Be careful out there, the eels are everywhere." Scout warns.

"Don't worry about me, worry about getting some rest. You've got a lot to do tomorrow." Anakin replies.

"Yes sir." Scout replies and runs off to the ship. Little to his knowledge, this would be one of the easiest main battles he'd do.


	3. Lightning Assault

"But sir, you said we're joining the 501st?" Heavyfire protests when Rex gives them the news that they'll be joining the 648th. The 5 clones had just gotten off more training after the results of Rishi, along with recuperation.

"It may only be temporary, the 648th doesn't normally accept shinnies, but Commander Star says that they may give it a go with you 5." Rex replies. Neon squadron hopes that it's only temporary but they doubt it. "They know that you're only shinnies and have been in only 2 battles so you won't be getting big missions with them. I have reminded Star that you guys are only shinnies personally, so you'll be fine." Rex assures.

"Well," Scout sighs. "what's our first mission?"

"All I know, is that you'll be part of a lightning assault on Umbara to distract the separatists so that we can take Ryloth. Star will brief you on the rest. Now get on the LAAT and join the 648th, good luck men." Rex answers.

"Yes sir!" Neon squadron says in unison and board the LAAT.

On board the LAAT, they fly quietly from Corusant to a star cruiser in orbit. No one says anything, the clones are all overwhelmed with thoughts. _I can't believe that we won't be joining the 501st! We're gonna be stuck with the 648th, where they won't give us fun missions cause we're shinnies!_ Heavyfire thinks to himself in a mimicking voice. _I can't believe we'll be joining the 648th! They're legends!_ Ace practically shouts in delight through his thoughts. They land on the star cruiser and the door slides open. A clone with dark green armor and 2 pistols in holsters walks up to them along with 3 other clones with DC-15's in formation behind him. "You must be the shinnies Rex told me about." The double pistol clone says.

"Yes sir! I'm CT-" Scout starts but is cut off by the double pistol clone. "Save it shiny, I don't need your numbers, I need your names." He says angry.

"Right, uh, sorry sir! I'm Scout and this is my squad..." Scout replies but is cut off again by the clone. "Do they have mouths?" He asks getting angrier.

"Yes sir?" Scout replies.

"Then let them speak!" The clone shouts at him, the clones in the hangar start chuckling, confusing Sniper.

"Dang it guys! You ruined it!" The clone says to the clones behind him.

"Sorry Star, but it was to funny." The one on the left says.

"Shut up Ender. And you to Green! Stop laughing." Star orders jokingly

"That was not me Star, that was completely Oddshot!" Green says.

"Ever hear the term, snitches get stitches?" Oddshot asks Green intimidatingly.

"Anyway Scout, who are your friends?" Star asks.

"On my left is Ace and on my right is Sniper, behind me is Heavyfire and this is Ash." Scout answers.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Commander Star, welcome to the 648th, we're not a very formal battalion as you can see, but we do only deal with the trained soldiers that have been to more battles then you lot. However, General Tip-Lee has ordered that we try taking in some shinnies for once, so here you guys are for at least this mission." Star informs.

"Right uh, what is this mission?" Ace asks.

"Our mission is to unleash a small lightning assault in the Umbara system to distract the Separatists away from Ryloth. We will launch 6 full LAAT's towards the planet hopefully undetected. From there we'll push towards this weapons base, we may or may not get there, it depends on how the Separatists respond and how fast the Skywalker and Kenobi can get onto Ryloth. If we get to the base, we'll take it and hold out there until back up arrives to pick us up. Understood?" Star briefs.

"Isn't it a bit risky to only send in 180 troops? A couple good shots with missiles and we're done for." Ace asks.

"Hey, it could be fun." Heavyfire says excitedly and pats his Z-6.

"I like both of your thinking troopers, but this assault should only last long enough to get troops to Ryloth. It's an expected 4-8 hours." Star replies.

"Yes sir." They reply.

"Now get some rest before the assault, you're gonna need it shinnies." Star orders. The clones solute and walk off to the barracks.

It's a long flight, over a day and most of Neon squadron sleeps for most of the trip. Heavyfire met a clone by the name of Fireball. Known for his love of explosions and heavy weapons, Heavyfire couldn't be happier. They went down to the shooting range and accidentally blew up the target. Fireball is the other member from Star's batch but felt that exploding things was more important than meeting shinnies.

Sniper and Ash enjoyed the ship and it's layout, they explored every last corner, and when they found the armory, Ash immediately, grabbed fuel and and an igniter and Sniper promptly grabbed a scope and attached it to his DC-15 rifle. They were making sure they'd be prepared for the assault.

Ace and Scout sit in the barracks the entire ride, coming up with battle plans and routes of attack. They want to be sure that if things go wrong, there's a back-up plan. They both know that the 648th probably have all the plans they have, but this makes them feel better about the attack that they feel will result in heavy casualties. Over all, the trip goes by fast and before they know it, they're boarding a LAAT next to their squad leader, Star.

The LAAT's take off and begin the landing sequence down to the planet of Umbara. Star's comm-link goes off, saying "This is General Tip-Lee, all squad leaders report in." The comm-link continues to go off. "This is Fireball, standing by!" "Ender, standing by." "Oddshot, standing by!" "Green, standing by." Finally, Star replies and says. "Star, standing by." Tip-Lee continues to speak over her comm-link. "Remember, the goal isn't to win, the goal is to hold out long enough to get the Separatists to focus on us and not the invasion on Ryloth. The 649th will be attacking with 10 LAAT's on the other side of the planet to make it appear like a planetary invasion. The moment Kenobi and Skywalker touch ground on Ryloth we're getting off this planet. Remember, no unnecessary risks, we are only on defense, if all goes well, we'll take a weapons base and cause more mayhem. Now, prepare for landing, we're approaching the atmosphere." They enter the atmosphere, and they can't here any canon shots. So far, so good. No one has said a word, everyone is still and quiet. Ace and Scout are both anxious, especially since they feel that this isn't a well conceived plan. They don't care how well trained these clones are , 180 very well trained clones vs at least thousands of soldiers still isn't a good idea.

All of a sudden, the wing of their LAAT bursts into flames but luckily quickly goes out . The doors open, still to high to disembark but in case evacuation is needed, they're ready. Heavy canon fire erupts from the ground, even Heavyfire knows that these pilots won't be able to keep up with the bombardment forever. Star's comm-link goes off and he immediately answers it. "All squads, prepare to evacuate the moment we're close enough!" A blast comes from the speaker and they can see the generals LAAT burst into flames in the front, clearly killing both pilots. Their ship plummets to the ground and Neon squadron watches the survivors jump out of the LAAT. They can see a lightsaber ignite and clone blaster bolts firing, that squad has no choice but to start their assault early. Star's squad looks to their right and sees Fireball enthusiastically hooting, he's gotten his battle high and is ready to blast the Umbarans. His excitement is cut short when his LAAT is hit by 2 canon blasts, engulfing most of the ship in flames. Most of the clones, to Neon squadrons surprise, didn't die. They had quickly lowered themselves down so that they're dangling from the LAAT by their hands from the floor. When their LAAT gets close enough, they drop and open fire. "That's 2 ships down!" A clone shouts. "Shut-up Copter!" Star shouts back, as Oddshot's ship loses both it's wings and crashes to the ground and the clones dive out, as far as Neon can tell, no casualties. They look to their left and a canon shot blasts straight into their wing, blowing it up. The ship begins to crash land. The clones hold onto their handle bars and when they get close enough to the ground everyone jumps out of the ship. Both pilots also jump out and the moment they touch ground they open fire. They need to clear the ground, now. They can see Ender and Green's ships both make it to the drop zone and start to clear a spot. The same spot that Star's squad needs to get to, and fast.

The next few minutes go by fast. Umbarans completely surround them, using the remains of the ship as cover, the squad holds a circle, trying to gain the upper hand. A canon blast lands next to Star and 4 clones, killing 3 of them and leaving Star and the other clone injured. A clone shouts "Get the injured out of the way!" Heavyfire remembers what Hardcase had done at the Kamino outpost. "Neon squadron on me! I know how we can get through!" He shouts and exits the circle and starts pushing forward towards the enemy. Behind the Umbaran forces is a large tree that Heavyfire is pushing towards. The rest of Neon squadron look at each other and shrug, they then charge after him and they work together to push through to the tree. Star yells something at them but they can't hear him and are more focused on pushing on. They reach the tree and duck behind it, once the fire on them stops, they pop out and mow down the Umbarans from behind. They clear a large hole in the Umbarans surrounding forces and the rest of the squad takes the opportunity and joins them at the tree. The canon fire stops, the canons have over heated, this gives the clones an opportunity to take them down. From there, the clones start pushing towards the drop zone Copter picks up Star and gets into the middle of the group to protect the commander. Ace leads the pack, with Scout at his tail, working together to make sure everyone else has a clear path to the drop zone. Ash and Sniper stay in the midst of clones while Heavyfire holds in the back. Star isn't very approving of them taking the lead, he'd prefer if one of the 648th was leading, but at least their making progress to the drop zone and they're aren't doing anything wrong, technically. Ace and Scout proceed forward sharply shooting their enemies. This part of the battle is a text book battle. Directly from training, they've been through plenty of suppression tests. To be honest, neither of the clones are finding it difficult, and without Heavyfire's idea, they'd still be stuck in that circle. Ash loses sight of Sniper but instead, finds a very injured clone pilot who Ash immediately picks up the clone and starts running towards the drop zone, trying to make sure that he's one of the first clones to the drop zone. Sniper is barely keeping up, he's no runner, and he just can't wait to use the scope and hold at the drop zone. They all look to their left and see the General next to Fireball, both squads were now joining up with the rest of Stars squad.

The only squad missing now is Oddshot's, but no one seems to mind. This confuses Heavyfire but maybe Oddshot has already made it to the drop zone. Ace and Scout can now see the details of the two LAAT's and can distinctly see the clones defending. From what they can tell, the Umbarans aren't making much progress on taking them down. _It's kinda strange that they don't have any tanks or bomber ships._ Ace thinks to himself as he shoots down 4 more Umbarans. They reach the drop zone finally and the injured are put in the middle while the rest of the clones keep fighting. Ash knows that the clones won't be able to hold once those canons recharge, so he pulls out the fuel containers from his bag and his igniter. "Sniper! Cover me from there! Heavyfire! With me!" Ash shouts. Heavyfire sees the fuel canister and immediately follows him. They work together to push forward and knock down any Umbarans in the way. When they get close enough, Ash sprays fuels on the canons, swiftly dodging bullets. When finished Ash ignites and throws detonators at them, promptly blowing them up then rushing back to the drop zone as fast as possible.

The battle continues for some time and as Ace diligently counts the minutes, he realizes that the Separatists aren't responding quickly to the invasion. _We're entering our fourth hour with no sign of change!_ The Umbaran forces are thinning out and the 648th is still standing. No one is sure of their numbers, but they know that they're winning this battle, they'd efficiently caught them enough by surprise to make the Umbarans sloppy. The last few are shot and killed and the clones immediately start gathering up wounded and dead. Ash, runs over to the clone he'd saved during the run to the drop zone to check up on him. The clone pilot is barely breathing, but looks up at Ash and smiles. "You, you saved my life!" The pilot says gratefully.

"Anything for a brother." Ash replies.

"Thank you. What is your name?" He asks.

"They call me Ash. And you?"

"Oddball, the name's Oddball."

The final death toll is 49 with 13 injured. Scout now knows how well trained these clones really are. One of the medics tells Neon squadron that Star requests to see them. They obey and move up towards him. He's leaning off of a LAAT, when they get up to him he perks up. "You wanted to see us sir?" Ace asks.

"Yes. Be completely honest, are you actually just shinnies?" Star asks.

"Uh, yes sir?" Sniper replies confused.

"You are aren't an advanced clone force?" Star asks. Heavyfire takes this question. "We were quick learners and they gave us the hardest tests on Kamino, but I'm sure Rex told you that."

"He didn't. You 5 have talent though." Star answers.

"Thank you sir." Scout replies.

"Let me ask you this. How is it that you 5, are better in the field then some of my troopers?" Star asks.

"We work as a team, we use our combined skills to act efficiently." Ace answers.

"That's not what I saw during the run, Scout and Ace worked in front, the rest of your team wasn't watching your back. I'm telling you, each of you as individuals have talent, and to prove it, I'm sending each of you on an individual mission!" Star replies. He's willing to test them, since the 648th isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Scout's mission is simple, retrieve the ammo packs from the Generals downed LAAT, it's pretty far out but at least he knows where it is. He moves slowly and quietly, as to make sure no one spots him. His gun is loaded and his fingers on the trigger. Scout has never been more nervous in his life. Not because he's by himself, it's because the others will be. No one has their back and all it takes is one false move and. Scout can't finish the thought. He approaches the LAAT, the front is completely destroyed, barely a trace of it. One wing had come off in the crash and is now nowhere to be seen. The doors are still open, Scout carefully enters the LAAT and looks around. It appears that the haul was undamaged. He heads over to the crate in the back and opens it up, it's filled with ammo packs. Scout shoves as many into his pack as possible and starts to carefully head back to the drop zone. He doesn't get very far though, the Umbarans have started attacking again. Scout estimates that there's only a squad attacking him, but that doesn't change the fact that he's only one clone. He runs back to the LAAT and starts shooting back at the Umbaran squad. He's slowly becoming surrounded and he isn't shooting down the enemy fast enough. An Umbaran enters the LAAT and is immediately shot down by Scout. Then he gets an idea, he grabs the ammo pack crate, still containing a lot of ammo packs he starts throwing ammo packs around the LAAT then pulls himself up onto the ceiling of the LAAT, he opens the hatch and gets onto the roof. The Umbaran squad pushes forward and the moment they reach the LAAT, Scout shoot an ammo pack, exploding it. "Gotcha." He says as the ammo packs explode, killing the entire squad and blowing up more of the LAAT. Scout jumps off of the roof and ducks down into the undergrowth.

Ash can't help but think that he has got the best mission. The Commanders LAAT was holding the battle plans for the assault. Every plan they have is in that LAAT and if the Umbarans take hold of them it's game over. Ash left for his mission last, he was there when the Commander gave the call to prepare to evacuate the moment all of Neon gets back. Ash stands in the middle of the of the battlefield with a bag full of detonators, dead Umbarans and debris from canons and LAAT's litter the ground. Ash has to be careful where he steps in fear that he'll step on a body. He finally reaches the LAAT, the doors have been closed. Ash knows that's not how the clones left it, someone is inside. He sets his weapon to stun and opens the door a crack then sticks his gun in. He repeatedly shoots inside then pries the door open the rest of the way. Just a dead clone inside. Nothing to worry about. Ash starts placing detonators on the outside of the LAAT and works his way around until the entire outside is covered in detonators. He still has 4 left so he goes inside of the LAAT and places them on the data banks where the dead clone was. Was. _Shit_ Ash realizes immediately what's happened, he remembers one of the clones on the trip here telling him about a clone who betrayed the Republic, he turns around as the clone whacks his head with a blaster. Ash staggers for a moment then dives at the clone. The clone catches him and they hold in a dead lock for a couple seconds, then Ash trips him up, pounding him to the ground. He notices that under the clones' helmet a pinkish like skin, it's not a crazy clone, it's something else. Ash reaches for a blaster but the impostor sees it to and grans Ash by the leg and pulls him down, it then begins pulling Ash back and repeatedly bashing at the backs of his shins. Ash yelps in pain as the punches get harder, he tries to kick him away, but to no avail. He looks around and finds a decently large rock. He grabs it while the impostor is distracted, he gets one shot at this. He needs to hit the guy and not his own legs. With weakening legs, he takes a deep breath and throws the rock.

Ace had a mission similar to Scout's location wise. He had to get to Fireball's destroyed LAAT and find whoever was broadcasting a beacon. That beacon means at least one clone survived, to injured to walk. Ace found the remains of Fireball's LAAT, it's completely destroyed. He looks around and finds a clone slouched next to some debris, the beacon is coming from where he's sitting. He walks over to the clone and touches his shoulder. "You've got to wake up brother, we need to get out of here." Ace says to him. The clone looks at him then makes a strange shout, sounding like Umbaran, but Ace doesn't have time to realize that because the clone is diving for Ace's neck. The clone grasps Ace's neck and squeezes, Ace can no longer breathe. He lifts up his gun and fires at the attacker's leg, the attacker falls down and Ace gasps for air. He sets his gun for stun and stuns the attacker. He walks over to him and kneels down, he takes off the helmet and it reveals an Umbaran. "What the!" Ace shouts in surprise and then shoots the Umbaran, killing it. "Why didn't he just shoot me?" Ace asks himself. He ponders the thought for a little while, then it dawns on him. "They wanted to keep my armor intact so that they could have two hidden Umbarans, not one. The only thing that doesn't make sense..." Ace is interrupted by a large explosion coming from where Scout had been. "Shit." Ace starts running to the 649th LAAT, to save Heavyfire.

It's Sniper's mission that's the hardest. He has to sneak behind enemy lines and retrieve a clone prisoner that's being taken to the weapons base for execution. The clone prisoner sent a distress call the moment the clones landed on Umbara and now with spare time, it's time to rescue him. Sniper is crawling through the undergrowth of the planet, passing several dead Umbarans. It's terrifying to say the least. As he's crawling through, he can't help but wonder why the Commander thinks he can do this. He wasn't even a top player in the push to the drop zone. _Why do I get the hardest mission? That should to literally anyone but me, I did nothing._ Sniper thinks to himself just as he finally gets behind the Umbarans and can go find the prisoner now. From the distress call had told the General and the Commander, the prisoner should be arriving soon. He waits there for a little while and eventually sees him, with an entire squad of Umbarans. Sniper places a detonator next to where the Umbaran squad is going and then goes back to hiding, his gun aimed for the closest Umbaran. The Umbarans walk next to the detonator and Sniper sets it off, killing 6 and injuring another 4. Sniper starts shooting the Umbarans from his hiding place and before they can find him, they're all dead. The prisoner looks around, he's still in his armor, 212th by the look of it. Sniper stands up and rushes over to the clone. He breaks the cuffs and hands him a DC-15 blaster. "Come on, we don't have much time." Sniper whispers to him and they both duck into the undergrowth and start the long crawl back. They reach a large cliff as they crawl, this was the sign that they could stand up. Sniper stands up, relieved to be standing again, then helps up the 212th clone. "We're almost there bro-" Sniper is cut off by a stun blast launching into him. He drops and the Umbaran starts taking Sniper's armor, once finished, and as Sniper begins to regain consciousness he's pushed off the cliff.

Ace races towards Heavyfire's last known location, he can't let his brother get killed. He reaches with within a klick of the drop zone when 3 large centipede like tanks burst from the ground. Every section of its shell-like body contain blaster turrets, along with claw like fangs on the front of the tank. The tanks start attacking the drop zone, clone blaster shots are heard and seen as the clones try to fight their ray-shielded foe. Ace can hear their screams as the tanks obliterate them, that's when the LAAT's turn on. "Oh no! No! No! No! Stop! Wait!" Ace screams, waving his arms in the air, running for the LAAT's. It's no use, the LAAT's take off, clearly packed pull with troopers retreating. Ace's throat sinks to his feet. He's stranded, along with the rest of Neon, on a planet with ray-shielded killer super tanks. Ace still needs to save Heavyfire, but he can also see the other stranded 648th clones struggling to escape the tanks. He needs to help them first. _But Heavyfire could be dying._ His mind tells him. He sees the clones duck to the ground, he's pretty sure they're playing dead, but regardless, there's no way to help now. Now, he's got to save his brother.

Heavyfire is frustrated with his mission. He hates stealth, but somehow, he's had to use it in all of his missions! His mission is simple, sort of. When the 649th Legion was doing its landing sequence, one LAAT was immediately shot from the sky and crashed onto Umbara, just 2 klicks (2 km or 1.25 miles) from the 648th drop zone. His goal is to find the LAAT and check for survivors, if there are too many survivors that are to injured to move, then Heavyfire is to hurry back and report the status, then the LAAT's will pick the injured up. Heavyfire reaches the top of a hill 1 and a half kilcks in and takes a look behind him. He can see for myriameters (10 km or 6.2 miles) he can see the downed LAAT's, some smoldering and smoking from the impact. He can see the drop zone with the two LAAT's preparing to evacuate. Heavyfire assumes that the separatists did act quickly and the 648th is starting departures soon. He turns back around to the way he was going. He can see the downed LAAT but doesn't see any movement around it. He can't tell if the doors are open or not, but he can tell clearly that the cockpits have been destroyed, most likely killing the pilots. He continues on and eventually sneaks his way to the downed LAAT. The doors aren't open and the pilots aren't in the cockpits. _That's doesn't seem right. The pilots must be inside treating the wounded or being treated._ He pries open the door and sees a bunch of injured clones barely moving, all 30 of them, along with the two pilots, also barely moving. "That's not right!" Heavyfire says as he backs up and 32 clones lunge at him. He wacks a few clones with his Z-6, but he's careful not to kill them. These are his brothers, they must have developed a disease or something. He knocks out around 10 before getting tackled to the ground. He punches and kicks at the clones, trying to stop them. One grasps hold of his neck and Heavyfire realizes the situation just got worse, as the clone begins to squeeze.


	4. Trapped

Scout wakes up in a haze. He can't focus on anything and he can't move. He can still hear the crackle of flaming trees or grass. This causes Scout to panic, he still can't focus but he knows where he is, in the grass. He tries to stand up, but he can't. He also can't feel a thing, panicking, he tries to flail his legs, to try and stand up, but to no avail., his legs won't move Constantly trying to lift his legs, he expends more energy, he can see the blur of flames slowly coming towards him. _Good thing that the grass on this planet burns slowly._ He tries to push himself up with his arms, he gets his chest off the ground but his legs still won't budge. He can't see behind him, or at all really, but he knows what's happened. Something heavy, most likely part of the LAAT is on top of him. He reaches behind him and can tell his hand hit something big and heavy, but still he can't feel a thing. _Great, I'm gonna slowly burn to death._ Scout tries to push the object off his legs and makes a little progress, freeing his waist. At least now he can turn to look left or right, not that it helps much, his vision is still blurry. Regardless, he tries to turn over, and to his luck, he's able to turn over enough so that he can sit up. He starts pushing the object with his legs and arms, along with the extra force of his body to push himself free. He tries to stand up, but his legs won't let him. The fire's getting close and he needs to get out of there, now. So, in desperation to escape, he begins crawling with only his arms, dragging his legs behind him. The fire is spreading from where the explosion of the LAAT was. Meaning Scout has a clear path to the drop zone. That's how he survives this, he gets to the drop zone, then the medics will take care of him. He can't see the drop zone, but he knows where it was when he jumped off the LAAT, so he begins crawling in that direction. Hoping to reach it in time.

The rock hits the clone impostor square in the face, knocking him out. Ash sighs in relief as the constant pain in his shins stop. He stands up and grabs his gun, he stuns the attacker then takes off its helmet. An Umbaran. They knew that he was going to this LAAT, they knew of this mission. Ash realizes this and starts running for his brothers. If the Umbarans had known of his mission, they probably know of the others, and they're all walking into traps! Then he looks around, he can remember the sounds of screaming and blaster fire. To much to be Neon squadron, the drop zone must've been attacked! Ash realizes and stops running, he looks for the drop zone but he can't see anything. All he can see is a large amount of smoke where the landing zone was. Ash knows that the drop zone has been potentially jeopardized and that there's no chance of saving his squad and getting them home without it. He turns towards the smoke and begins running in that direction, to help save the drop zone.

The next few moments of Ash's run were completely silent. He was to busy focused on helping and not on running, which inevitably causes him to trip up and fall to the ground. He groans in discomfort, but he's pretty sure nothing bad has happened to him. However, he finds comfort in the ground, he could just fall asleep right there. This entire assault had been physically demanding, and with the lack of experience, he was really tired. He begins to close his eyes when someone calls out to him. "Hey you! Shiny!" He hears, he reluctantly pushes himself up and finds himself in front of 7 clones from the 648th. Ash points his gun and them. They could be Umbarans, they all point there guns at him and the lead one calls to him. "What are you doing?" He demands.

"Take off your helmets! All of you!" Ash demands.

"Look, calm down trooper, put down your weapon." The lead clone orders.

"Take them off!" Ash shouts. The lead clone nods to the others and he takes off his helmet. Revealing a clone face. The other 6 follow suit, all clones. Ash lowers his gun. "Sorry, the Umbarans have been stealing our armor from dead clones. One attacked me, I thought.." Ash defends himself but the lead clone interrupts him.

"It's okay brother, we understand. The Umbarans have been ruthless to us. I'm Copter, your leading clone until we get off this rock." Copter says. This makes Ash very confused.

"What happened to the general, or Star and the squad leaders?" Ash asks.

"Huge tanks attacked the drop zone, they had ray shields and were decimating us. We had to evacuate. The two LAAT's were packed full with clones. The General and squad leaders all were forced to evacuate as well. We've taken heavy casualties, but at least, 68 of us got off the planet. The tanks left after the ships left, leaving the survivors stranded. As far as we know, we're the only ones left. During the battle, the clones that were to be left behind, were ordered to retreat from the drop zone, we were heading back to the drop zone to check for survivors when we found you. Communications are down, we assume that it's the Umbarans, they have our armor, so they have the ability to jam them directly." Copter explains.

"Then lets go find the survivors, do you know if any shinnies were evacuated?" Ash asks as they walk to the drop zone.

"I'm sorry, none of you had made it back during the battle. You were all still doing your individual missions." Copter answers. The words punched Ash in the gut. Not a single one of them made it back. They're all probably dead. Ash's heart sank to his feet. He can't bare the thought of his worst nightmare becoming reality. Now all he can do is hope that they are all heading back to the drop zone and will meet him there.

When they arrive at the drop zone, Copter orders everyone to pan out and search for survivors. It's a state in there. Clone and Umbaran bodies scattered all over the drop zone. Every clone Ash finds, adds to the tally of dead clones. So far, no survivors. Those tanks hit hard, slaughtering most of the clones on the attack in a legendary legion. They find no survivors. The tally of clones dead adds up correctly. Only missing 4 clones, the shinnies. To Ash, this brings a glimmer of hope, "missing in action" isn't a definite dead. There's still a chance they might've survived. Ash grabs two pistols and their holsters. Copter brings in the order to gather up and move out. "The Commander informed me before we left that they'll meet us on the top of a large hill 2 myriameters from the drop zone to pick us up as soon as possible. Apparently the Separatists responded with a lot more force than previously thought, forcing our star cruiser to retreat the moment our LAAT's arrived on the cruiser. They will return for us once more republic cruisers can help allow a couple of LAAT's through the blockade and save us. All we've got to do, is get to the top of that hill. So lets move out!" Copter orders, forcing Ash, to hope that they'll find his brothers on the way there.

Heavyfire can't breathe at all anymore. He's losing feeling in his hands and feet and it's getting worse. _This is how it ends? Really, thought I would've done something stupid like blown myself up._ Heavyfire focuses on humorous thoughts, to make his death easier. It wasn't really working but he didn't care, it wouldn't be much longer anyway. No matter how hard he struggled the clones had him pinned to the ground. Then he can hear blaster fire. Someone's here! The clones get off of him and charge at his savior, Heavyfire gasps for air, coughing as he did it. He can tell that the savior is doing well since he can still hear the blaster fire. He sits up and grabs his Z-6, from the ground he opens fire on the attackers and the last of them die. Except one, with a bullet hole in its helmet. He opens fire at it and it ducks behind the LAAT. Heavyfire runs into the LAAT and opens the other door, catching the clone by surprise and nearly hitting him. "Heavyfire stop!" He hears, he immediately stops and looks at the clone. The clone takes off hiss helmet, revealing the face of Ace. "It's only me." Ace says.

"What the hell happened to your helmet?" Heavyfire asks as he stands up.

"It got shot." Ace blatantly states.

"I can see that, how'd you survive?" Heavyfire replies.

"I wasn't wearing it. Now, if you don't mind, we need to get to the drop zone to search for survivors." Ace says and starts running back to the drop zone. Heavyfire immediately follows.

"What do you mean search for survivors? What happened?" Heavyfire asks in distress.

"The drop zone was attacked by ray shielded tanks. They evacuated as many people as possible, but there's no way to fit 150 clones in those two LAAT's." Ace answers. Heavyfire can't believe it, they've been left behind.

"So, we're stranded for now?" Heavyfire asks.

"Yes, I watched the cruiser enter hyperspace, but they won't leave 100 clones for dead. They'll be back." Ace assures.

"I hope you're right cause I don't wanna stay on this rock for the rest of my life." Heavyfire says uneasily, looking at the terrain that he's gonna be stuck on for the next while.

"Neither do I, but we may be here for a while..." Ace replies as they continue running.

When they get to the drop zone they see the bodies scattered along the battle field, no living clone in sight. Ace and Heavyfire look around, all they find are dead 648th clones, no shinnies at least. That means the others either got away, or are still stranded. Heavyfire doesn't like the thought of his brothers being out there alone, potentially very injured. He know hes going to be fine, he's uninjured and has Ace with him to work together, the others don't have a team. Ace sees something move in the grass, they both arm their weapons. "Please! Stop! Help me." It says, it sounds like a clone.

"Who's there?!" Ace demands.

"I'm one of the shinnies! CT-4753!" Scout replies.

"Scout!" Ace shouts in relief and runs to where he had just seen his brother. He finds him laying on the ground. Scorch marks cover Scouts leg armor, and his lower half of armor is cracked and crushed. Ace tries to help him up but Scout yelps in pain, his legs are to badly injured. "I think your legs are broken." Ace tells him. Heavyfire rushes to one side of Scout and Ace on the other. Together they prop Scout up, his legs drag a little on the ground, they seat him leaning on the side of debris from what looks like a canon. His breathing is heavy and he still can't focus on anything, at least he can feel now.

"I'm concussed." Scout diagnoses to the other two.

"You sure?" Ace asks worriedly.

"Yeah, I haven't been able to focus in the past however long it's been since the drop zone battle." Scout says confidently. Ace and Heavyfire exchange looks of worry. "Wait, where are the LAAT's? And the 648th?"

Ash has been walking for hours. Copter insists that they keep moving, they'll rest when they get to the rendezvous point. There's no way the others will find this point, not a chance. He has no idea how they'll get out of this, he could very well be the only one of Neon squadron left. They've been to only 3 missions, and already 4 of them dead. If only there was something Ash could do about this. There's gotta be something he can do. His thoughts are interrupted when a clone becomes ensnared by a vine connected to a large carnivorous plant. It dangles the clone in the air by his ankle and the clones open fire on the plant. The plant immediately dies and drops the clone. Ash helps him up and they continue on, but not long after, several fanged, shelled floating creatures fly in and attack the clones. Copter orders the clones to shoot them down and the first few creatures are hit and die, but the last two grab Copter and another clone. "Be careful! Don't hit Copter or Flank!" One clone orders. Copter holds the creatures mouth open and shoots into its mouth, causing it fall to the ground, releasing Copter, but Flank isn't so lucky and they can hear him scream as the creature bites into his neck. Killing him. Copter stands up and catches his breath. "This planet is out to kill us, watch your step and keep an eye on the sky. You'll never know when they'll come back." Copter advises. "Thanks for the warning, it's not like I've been here for the past day and witnessed it or anything." Mutters to himself.

Sniper is falling, finally awake but about to die. Had this been survivable, Sniper would've found it fun, but unfortunately it's not survivable. _Well, let's hope they don't waste time trying to find me._ "Ow!" He shouts as his fall is broken by something going horizontally. He feels something put pressure on his waist while his legs and torso dangle. He looks at what caught him. It's a creature he knows to be a banshee, fanged, shelled and flying without wings. He needed to get out of this creatures mouth, quickly. He punches its nose and it immediately opens its jaws. Sniper slips out and he grabs the bottom jaw and works his way onto it's back. He "rides" the banshee as it travels somewhere. It flies close to the ground and Sniper doesn't know why, but he began talking to it. "Find the people that smell like me!" He says and sticks his arm in front of the banshee in hopes it'll track the scent. It screeches, then turns around and starts flying in a different direction. The banshee hasn't thrown Sniper off yet, which is strange to him. Maybe the creature is sentient, it understands the distress of Sniper, possibly. He pats the creature with reassurance and it makes a purring like sound. Or maybe it's a creature that can be tamed like a pet. Wouldn't that be cool? A pet banshee? That would be, something else.

Trick and Charger walk onto the main bridge of a star cruiser where Sergeant Appo is waiting. They had just gotten off of shore leave and are ready to be deployed into a legion or attack battalion. Knowing that Neon squadron has been sent off to the 648th. Xerox squadron fears that they may also be relocated and not be placed in the 501st as well. Appo greets them with a solute, they solute back and then Rex begins talking. "You two have shown great valor and bravery on the battle field. The Rishi moon bases could not fall into Separatist hands, and thanks to you two, they didn't. I would be honored to take both of you into the 501st. Welcome to the 501st boys!" Appo congratulates. The two clones beam with excitement. They've done it, they succeeded in getting into their dream battalion. "Thank you sir!" They both say and Rex is about to say something but a transmission comes in. It's Jedi Master Tip-Lee. "Sergeant, our lightning assault hasn't gone as planned. The Umbarans have driven us off the planet and away from the system. We still have over 100 clones on the surface still and we need to get them off. The rest of our fleet is to far away, to get to us on time. Your star cruisers should be getting close to the system now, we need reinforcements to save our men. Please help us." Tip-Lee pleads. "I will consult the General." Appo replies. "Thank you Sergeant." Tip-Lee says then disengages the transmission. Trick and Charger are engaged to the situation now and Appo calls the general. He answers in the middle of the battle on Ryloth. "General, Tip-Lee needs reinforcements to lead a quick assault on the blockade on Umbara, all we need to do is allow a few LAAT's through the blockade and save their trapped troops." Appo informs. "If you can do it and still be here in time for the rendezvous. Then my all means sergeant, but if not, they'll have to wait a while!" Anakin shouts over the blaster fire on the planet. "Understood." Appo says then disengages, he doesn't give the order to reroute the fleet to Umbara.

"Sir, aren't we going to save them?" Trick asks, concerned for Neon squadron.

"We don't have enough time, we have around an hour of extra time, it's not enough." Appo answers.

"But sir, if they have to wait, the 100 clones could all die!" Trick protests.

"I know that trooper. But if we aren't there for the 501st, thousands of clones could all die!" Appo fights back. Trick and Charger sigh in understanding.

"Sorry sir, we'll be heading back to the barracks." Charger says, the two clones solute then march out of the bridge.

As they walk down to the barracks, Trick reroutes them towards the target room. Charger is a little confused, but assumes that Trick just needs to relieve some anger on the targets. When they get there however, Trick goes to the transmitter there instead. "What are you doing?" Charger asks inquisitively.

"Sending a transmission from this room that's full of clones, that way, we can't be detected." Trick replies.

"Who are you sending it to?" Charger asks.

"General Plo Koon, he told be when we were on Corusant, that if at anytime at all we needed help, we could tell him." Trick replies. Charger isn't impressed.

"It's very risky." Charger warns.

"You know me Charger, I like risk. Now quiet while I talk to him." Trick replies, and to Chargers surprise, Plo Koon answers the call. "General!"

"Trick! It's good to see you! What brings you here to call me?" Plo Koon asks.

"We need your help, your fleet is orbiting Onderon, close to the Umbara system, right?" Trick asks.

"Yes?" Plo Koon replies steadily.

"The 648th has several trapped men on the surface of Umbara and a quick attack on the planetary blockade is required to send in a retrieval party. Those clones need help and you're the closest force to the planet. Please help them." Trick pleads.

"You're friends are on that planet, aren't they?" Plo Koon asks.

"Yes general." Trick replies. "Please help them."

The survivors are now climbing the hill, after a consistent pace for the past half-a-day they're almost at the rendezvous point. Ash doesn't like climbing the hill, not only is he extremely exhausted, but also, they're out in the open until the LAAT's arrive, with only a singular tree as cover. They here a screech and they all stop moving. They duck down immediately and spot another banshee, but this time there's something on it, waving and shouting, almost sounding like, a clone. _That can't be right_ Ash thinks when he hears it, but sure enough, he sees an armor-less clone on top of the banshee. They can understand what he's saying now. "Don't shoot! It's a friendly one!" The clones look towards Copter who tells them to hold their fire. The banshee flies over them, then lands next to them, the clone gets off and pats the banshee who rolls over and the clone gives it a belly rub. It's Sniper! Most of Copter's men look confused but Ash is overjoyed.

"Sniper! You're alive!" Ash says in a very joyful tone. Sniper smiles and hugs his brother.

"Wouldn't have been alive if it hadn't been for this guy." Sniper replies as he pats the creature again, which is now following the clone.

"Looks like you've made a friend." One clone jokes.

"Yeah, you gotta name for him?" Another asks.

"Yes actually, his name is Screecher." Sniper replies and the clones chuckle. Ash hands him his blaster, and Ash pulls out his dual pistols he found at the drop zone.

"Come on, we need to keep moving." Copter orders, and the climb to the top continues.

After Ace had finished explaining their situation to Scout, He and Heavyfire started setting up a camp, from various materials from clones packs. They set up a tent for Scout to rest while they gathered supplies. Ace knows that the only way that they survive is they get a transmitter to work. They need some ship materials to allow one to function. With Fireball's, Star's and the General's LAAT's demolished, and Green and Ender's ships no longer on the planet, only Oddshot's LAAT remains with the haul in tact. Ace decides that Heavyfire should stay with Scout while Ace runs to Oddshot's LAAT to get the supplies. Heavyfire reluctantly agrees, and sends Ace on his way while he stays and guards the camp. Scout beckons for him. "So what's the plan?" Scout asks weakly.

"Ace is going to get the supplies from the LAAT we need to put through a transmission to inform the retrieval team of our location, so that we can get out of here." Heavyfire answers.

"Wait! You're sending Ace to the LAAT alone!?" Scout asks in a panicked state.

"Yes? Look, we've made it this far and the Umbarans haven't attacked, they're leaving us for dead. What can 3 shinnies do anyway? They know that most of us have been killed. There's no point in wasting their time on a couple of shinnies!" Heavyfire replies. "We're just shinnies. Nothing special. Ace is gonna send that transmission but what's the point if it's only us three alive? The Republic won't waste resources on only 3 clones. It's foolish of them if they do. We have no valuable information whatsoever that the Republic would need. So we're stuck here, until we die."

"Heavyfire, giving up just like that." Scout says in disappointment as he snaps his fingers."The clone that has literally blazed his own trail through battles every single time. Constantly mowing down enemy and not letting anything get to your head that says you can't win and you're giving up? How far the great Heavyfire has fallen."

"Stop that, I don't give up, I find a plan around things all the time. Just not this time because we can't get the an advantage over the enemy... Wait a second! How far away is that Umbaran weapons base?" Heavyfire asks.

"5 klicks from here. Why?" Scout asks.

"Excellent, I'll be back in about 2 hours, with our ticket off this rock." Heavyfire says, then before Scout can ask for details, Heavyfire is sprinting with a couple of explosives and a rifle, off to the weapons base. _He'd better know what he's doing._

Ace walks up to the downed LAAT, the front is demolished and the wings are gone, but the haul seems in tact. He enters the LAAT and heads straight for the transmitter. He pulls it from the wall and shoves it inside his bag, job done. A blaster shot hits the metal right next to Ace, he immediately closes the LAAT door and exits the other side. He uses the LAAT for cover as he shoots back at the lone Umbaran. _He must've been a survivor from the drop zone battle._ Ace thinks as he fires at the Umbaran. The blaster shots stop for a while and Ace carefully exits cover. He ducks into the undergrowth, he crawls toward the place he had last seen the Umbaran and when he gets close enough, the Umbaran lunges at him and Ace fires, killing the Umbaran, he lets out a sigh of relief and stands up. _That was a close call._ He thinks and then runs back to the drop zone.

Copter and his men finally reach the top of the hill. Relieved that they'd finally made it, most them lay down and breathe heavily and happily. Ash is is to happy to speak, he's finally able to rest, at least for a bit. Sniper grabs a stick and starts throwing it around, Screecher gladly going to get it like a happy house pet. He plans on taking Screecher home with him, he could stay on the star cruiser during missions and he could stay with Sniper for the rest of the time. The clones don't think it's a great idea, but as long as it doesn't eat anyone, they don't see why not. It had been a long day, and now all Ash can think about is his bunk on the star cruiser. It's so inviting to just sleep now, but he knows that could get him killed and he'd rather that not to happen. Especially so early in his life, this is only his third mission. He wants to become an ARC trooper or a Commander or Captain of a legion or attack battalion. He has plans to make it through the war and see the victory of the Republic. He wants to be there when the last bloody clanker is destroyed. When Asajj and Grievous are killed, and when Count Dooku is finally captured and put to trial for his crimes against the Republic. He wants to see those days, so he can't, he won't, die now.

Heavyfire reaches the weapons base, it's large electric fence surrounding the massive buildings just adds to it's intimidating look. He sees a tree with a branch that has grown over the fence and gets an idea, he'd read about distractions during his training on Kamino. How if you can divert the enemy, you can accomplish more. He pulls out three thermal detonators and puts them around the tree, then he uses his rifle with an extension cable, to scale the tree. Once up there, he goes along the branch, then using the extension cable again, he lowers himself down into the weapons base. He puts his extension cable away and runs to one of the landed ships on the landing pads. A squad of Umbarans are patrolling the area so Heavyfire ducks into cover behind a wall. He peeks out and sees the patrol turn around, he takes this opportunity to get closer and hides behind a couple of crates. Now for his distraction. Heavyfire pulls out the detonator and pushes the button, blowing up the tree causing it to collapse on the fence. This gets the attention of the squad and they run towards the tree. Heavyfire chuckles to himself and runs inside of an Umbaran Support Ship. He closes the door behind him and does a quick check for Umbarans, he doesn't find any. He runs to the cockpit of the ship and takes the controls. They look like normal controls to him, just a bunch of buttons and switches a lever and a steering wheel. It looks simple enough, he finds what he thinks is the flight lever, he's never seen the inside of an Umbaran ship before. He holds his breath, and with little hesitation, he pulls the lever.

 **Wow, I didn't expect a decent amount of readers this quickly, it's really awesome! I hope you are all enjoying this story as much as I am! What I would like to know, is everyone's favourite clone and why? (Neon or Xerox squadron) I'm very curious to know. Also who do you think had the hardest time after the drop zone battle. Leave the answers in the comments and let me know if you enjoyed this story so far and what you would like to see in a certain mission. This story is no where near done and Fives and Echo will be joining forces with Neon at some point.**

 **Just so you know, (because I know it is a little bit unbelievable for Sniper to just be caught by a creature like that)** **Sniper did not ex-machina his way out of his situation, based on their environment and their type of species, also based on the actual episodes with banshees, they could actually pick up his scent the moment he was out of his armor. The banshees knew that Sniper was easy prey, and therefore could get to him in time.**


	5. Evacuation

**Sorry for the late post! I've been doing a whole bunch of tests and then when those were done I had Thanksgiving with my family, I also got stuck inside of some drama, so my mind was a little clouded XD. This the final part to the Umbaran story ark so get ready for a new adventure after this one! Hope you enjoy!**

Turns out, the lever Heavyfire pulled wasn't the flight lever, it was something else. Luckily there are no consequences since the ship hasn't even taken off yet. He starts flicking random switches until one allows him to take off. He grabs the wheel and uses the lever again, it's an accelerator. The ship rises above the fence and then Heavyfire fulls the lever down a little bit, causing the ship to move, quickly towards the drop zone. The steering isn't to bad but he still doesn't know how to use the weapons or activate the shields, right now, he's just a flying hunk of unprotected metal flying past several squads of Umbarans who open fire on him. "This isn't good!" He shouts as the pulls up to hopefully get out of range. He succeeds and lets out a sigh of relief, right until two Umbaran fighters show up on the radar. "Shit!" He shouts and starts frantically searching for the weapons and shields. He punches a red button and the ship fires laser blasts that explode when they hit two trees. He flicks a couple of switches and alarms start blaring and the lights fade, but the shields pop up. He slows down the ship and the two fighters pass him, he immediately opens fire which destroys one of the ships, but the other evades him. 4 more fighters get on his trail, he needs to find the auto-canons. He flicks a few more switches and he hears a clink then the sound of a droid. "The security!" Heavyfire turns his attention to the hallway with his blaster, a droid with a protocol droid like body but far more agile. It's got a cylindrical disk like shape for a head with two yellow lights on the front for his "eyes". "Don't shoot!" It shouts in a panicked voice. "I mean no harm! I am a rebel!" It announces proudly.

"What?" Heavyfire asks as he lowers his weapon. The droids emotionless face stares blankly at him.

"I am 8LO25, part of a droid rebellion!" It says in a cheerful voice. "There are 78 of us in total, we are going to get off of this planet and join the Republic. You are with the Republic?"

"You got that right 8LO." Heavyfire replies proudly. "Now we need to take down those fighters, these shields won't hold forever." 8LO stares at Heavyfire for a moment then turns around and walks down the hall then into a room. "Droids." He says in disgust. Then blasts come from the ship then stop in a few seconds, no blaster fire at all. 8LO walks back to Heavyfire and speaks.

"I have successfully shot down the fighters, we have won!"

"That was quick! Nice one 8LO, by the way, you said there were 78 of you?" Heavyfire reminds him.

"Yes, they are running the ship, it takes more than just one to fly this ship." 8LO answers like it was a stupid question. "How long are we going to fly on the surface? We have gone nearly 50 klicks now."

Ace and Scout lay around, Scout's still under the tent and Ace is sitting outside of it as Scout explains the situation. "And you just let him go on?!" Ace sounds a little annoyed then Scout gestures towards his legs. "Right, so I guess we just wait here?" Ace suggests.

"We don't have much of a choice." Scout reminds him gesturing to his legs again.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Ace states. As he says this as a droid transport flies overhead then lands 3 kilcks away from Scout and Ace.

"Nice way to jinx us Ace." Scout says sarcastically.

"Thanks, I take pride in my work." Ace replies while he loads two blasters for himself.

"You really think you can take on an entire droid transport, effectively by yourself?" Scouts asks him.

"Well, I was thinking we could use some detonators." Ace answers confidently. "Drag yourself away from this area, well I place the bombs and hopefully don't get seen. Be ready to fire when the blast goes off."

Scout sighs and starts moving. "You make it sound so easy." He mutters to himself.

Ace starts grabbing detonators from dead clones, he's going to need every last one. He can see the droids marching out, away from Ace. " _They must be going for other survivors! We can't let that happen!"_ Ace thinks to himself. He places a few detonators in the open then detonates them causing an explosion that gets the droids attention and they start towards Ace. He places the remaining detonators where the droids will be when they get there. He runs back to Scout, who has placed himself covered by the remains of an Umbaran canon. "They're coming Scout."

"This means that the Republic hasn't gotten back to us. The Separatists have increased their blockade and are wiping us out!" Scout tells Ace.

"I know, I'm sure someone is coming though! They won't leave us!" Ace says with confidence.

"But we're just shinnies!" Scout reminds him.

"Yes, but Star left more than just shinnies here and he doesn't know that most of clones stranded are dead." Ace replies..

"I hope your right..."

Ash and Sniper watch as 7 more Separatist cruisers join the blockade over Umbara through their binoculars. It's a depressing site to see, there's little chance that the Republic _can_ retrieve them. The others also know it, with the rest of Neon squadron dead, and only 8 clones left alive, there isn't a whole lot of hope anymore. Sniper spent most of his time on the mountain, training Screecher to come when he's called, it eventually works. They watch as a droid transport lands a couple klicks away from the drop-zone. "That's odd, why would they go there? There's no survivors there... Unless..." Sniper mutters to himself then realizes that there must be survivors down there. "Sir! There are more survivors stranded down at the drop-zone!" Sniper announces.

"How do you know?" Copter asks, intrigued.

"The droids are marching towards the drop-zone, they wouldn't waste their time there if they didn't pick up any lifeforms in the area." Sniper states.

"It could be your shiny friends." Copter states. "Brightside, do the droids know we're here?"

"Definitely, their scanners would've picked us up the moment we're in range of the scanner." Brightside replies.

"Good, launch a flare, let the clones know where we are, we'll both stand a better shot at surviving if we can get together." Copter orders. Brightside grabs a flare and is about to launch it.

"Wait!" Sniper calls out. "We better be safe then sorry. How about I take Screecher and go quickly to the drop-zone to pick them up? That way, if the droids screwed up, we don't let them know of our location."

"Do it. Men be ready when Sniper comes back, he may have injured clones with him." Copter orders. "God speed Sniper."

Heavyfire turns the ship around and they start back toward the drop-zone, the 8LO25 looks confused. "Why are we going back?" It asks.

"We need to pick up some of my friends." Heavyfire replies.

"More Clone Troopers?" 8LO asks.

"Yes 8LO, more clones." Heavyfire answers.

"Excellent! Our rebellion will be even more effective!" 8LO replies. They grow silent for a while, Heavyfire is to focused on not missing Ace and Scout. He can't believe this is happening, they actually stand a chance at survival! With a droid army on his side, and a ship that can travel into hyperspace, their odds of survival stand a much better chance.

"8LO, get your troops ready for battle! Scanners are picking up a droid transport, we need to be ready to assist!" Heavyfire orders.

"Yes sir!" 8LO replies and speeds off to the other droids.

Sniper can see two clones in the distance, droids advancing on them, and one of them is propped against some debris, clearly very injured. _"At least 2 of them survived"_ Sniper thinks to himself as he continues on flight towards the clones. He doesn't know which 2 he wants alive though, he hopes his eyes are deceiving him or that the third is hiding somewhere. He can't bare the thought of even one of them critically injured, let alone dead. The droids are getting closer, there's not a whole lot of time left before the droids engage them in battle. The droids enter the drop-zone and the first few are destroyed by the blast but are quickly replaced by the rest of the wave. The 2 clones open fire on the droids, swiftly killing many droids. Before they can take down the first wave more droids are advancing from all sides, they're surrounded and the droids are closing on them. Sniper's getting really close now, one of the droids knock down the uninjured clone and he falls to the ground. Screecher screeches then swoops down at the droid and rips it up. Sniper jumps off Screecher as he swoops up with a few more droids, he opens fire on the droids as well. He realizes that's it's Heavyfire who's missing. He feels a strong stinging feeling in his chest and a huge lump in his throat.

"Welcome to the party!" Ace shouts, happy to see that another brother had survived.

"We need to get out of here! The banshee is with me, when he swoops down again, I'll call him over and we'll go back to the rendezvous point!" Sniper tells him.

"We need to hold out until Heavyfire returns with a ship!" Scout reminds in a panicked state as he shoots a droid right as the droid's about to shoot Ace.

"He's been gone to long! We need to go with Sniper!" Ace orders.

"Please! We can hold out here for just a few more minutes!" Scout pleads.

"We're getting out of here!" Sniper states, not surprised that Heavyfire did something stupid. "Screecher!" The banshee finishes ripping apart a couple more unfortunate victims then rushes over to Sniper. "Ah!" Sniper shouts as a blaster bolt hits his shoulder. Screecher becomes enraged and charges at the droid. "Screecher, no!" He cries as the banshee dashes through the droids, ripping them apart as he goes, then it happens, the banshee targets a droid in the center and as he charges, a droid shoots his side. Then another, and another bolt hits him. The banshee falls to the ground screeching, and with one last screech, he goes silent. The clones continue fighting, but now there's no point, their ride out of here is dead, now they're just fighting because they can. Sniper takes a quick moment to take in the series of events, then continues to focus on the battle at hand. They can hear a ship getting closer, just another ship filled with droids or Umbarans. Sniper doesn't care, it's just more targets. Then the ship lands in front of them and the door opens revealing Heavyfire, with an army of strange droids. They open fire on the battle droids and Heavyfire urges them to come inside the ship. Ace and Sniper rush over to Scout and help him in the ship, then once everyone is inside, they take off again.

When they finally get into a safe, hidden place they land and begin to discuss their next move. "The rest of the survivors are on top of that mountain waiting for the Republic, we need to get to them and pick them up before it's to late." Sniper tells everyone.

"Then I think we should act now. 8LO, get your troops ready, we're going into battle!" Heavyfire orders.

"Yes sir!" The droid replies enthusiastically then solutes and runs off.

"I take it you made a couple new friends." Scout jokes from the bed he'd been placed on.

"Yeah, 78 of them." Heavyfire replies.

"Nice, I take it I'm not going to get a choice but to stay here and rest?" Scout asks.

"Sorry brother, but you're in no condition to fight." Ace replies.

"Don't worry, it's only one battle that your missing, it's not like it's a full scale war you're missing out on." Ace reminds him in a joking manor. Scout sighs and looks at Ace.

"If you start a war out there, I will personally end you." Scout threatens then chuckles. Sniper picks up his gun.

"It's time for us to go." He warns the others. The other 2 stand up and put their helmets on as well, on their way out of the ship Ace stops next to Scout.

"Sit tight brother, we'll be back." Ace promises. Scout smiles then closes his eyes. It's time for him to sleep. The rest of them walk outside where the 8LO and his troops are waiting. "Let's move out!" Ace orders and takes the lead, the three start running with the droid rebels right behind them. The rendezvous point isn't far from where they were, about 3 klicks. Sniper can feel the air getting colder, he wishes that he had armor still, it's getting cold and the suit could've helped him out a lot. As they got closer the cold feeling went away, with only fury in its place, he is ready to take down dome droids.

Ash rests against a tree, he's frustrated with himself. He had turned around and stopped monitoring Sniper for 5 minutes and when he came back he was gone, along with the couple of clones he had seen before, presumably dead. If he had been watching, maybe they could've done something about it, but he'll never know now. Now he's just the only member of Neon squadron left, he's got nothing to lose. Brightside walks up to him with another clone. "You okay?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure he's fine, only lost his entire squadron as a shiny! I'm sure he's doing great!" The clone interrupts.

"Wow." Ash replies. "They really call you Sunshine for a reason then eh?"

"Yeah, I'm always looking at best parts of a situation as you can tell." Sunshine answers.

" _Anyway._ I seriously don't know if I'm okay or not, I'm still stuck on an adrenaline rush. I'll get back to you on that." Ash answers, then a blast comes from lower ground, knocking Copter of his feet. Droids march towards them and open fire.

"Yeah, get back to me if we survive this fight!" Brightside tells him as they return fire. Ash quickly shoots down the first few but the droids are advancing way to fast for him to keep up, he still has troubles aiming and now is really not a good time for practice. He sloppily shoots down another few but the droids advance to his location, he dives at a Super Battle Droid and rips out it's arms, he sets them to rapid fire and throws them into the mess of droids. Droids around the arms slowly get smaller as their lower points disintegrate from the blasts. One clone runs out of ammo and dives into the mess of droids, taking down as many as he can before he dies. There's only 6 of them, barely holding out. More droids appear from behind the clones.

"Stand down Republic scum!" A tactical droid shouts and Copter does some signal with his hands then steps into the open, drops his weapon and puts his hands up. One by one, the rest of the clones follow. "You are now prisoners of the Separatists, you will be interrogated then held captive until the day you die!" The droid informs them.

"Hey Ace! Do we take prisoners?" A clone asks from behind the droid.

"The probability of more clones here is almost impossible, it is just a hearing malfunction." The tactical droid explains to the rest of the battle droids.

"Nope! We don't!" A different clone says as droid poppers detonate at once, disabling half of the droids. Three clones and an army of various droids rush in and open fire on the droids. Copter and his men quickly grab their weapons and join in. The rebel droids quickly overtake the battle droids and soon enough the all the battle droids are dead. Then wave 2 marches in and soon enough, their in a heated even battle, with neither side gaining on the other. Wave 3 joins in the assault and soon the clones are being overwhelmed. Super Battle Droids begin eliminating several rebel droids and there's nothing the clones can do to stop them. "It's time to retreat to the ship! Let's get out of here!" Ace orders and everyone starts following him. They rush for the ship and when they get there they take off. When they get into outer-space Plo-Koon's fleet is there, they quickly request access to dock and before they know it, they're in the safety of the Republic. The fleet enters hyperspace once again, before the blockade even got the chance to fire a single canon. Ace and Copter meet with Plo-Koon and medics rush to Scout's aid.

"You're friends are very loyal to you Ace, they are the reason I came. Trick and Charger convinced me to rescue you, and it appears you made it easier than I thought." Plo tells him.

"Thank you sir. I'll make sure I thank them." Ace replies.

"Copter, you must've been quite the leader down there?" Plo asks him.

"I don't know sir, I feel I was to demanding at times." Copter answers as Ash walks by.

"Sir, if Copter hadn't been demanding, the droids would've killed us for sure. He saved our lives." Ash notes.

"It appears, you have an admirer." Plo suggests to Copter.

"So it does, now then General. I am going to get some rest, as should you, shiny." Copter suggests to Ace.

"14 survivors." 8LO tells Heavyfire.

"Well, that's still 14 more soldiers to help end this war. You can still come back with us." Heavyfire offers.

"Actually, I think we're not going to." 8LO answers.

"Huh?" Heavyfire says confused.

"There are still so many droids and people that want to rebel from the Separatists. I will join you once again someday, but for now, I must create an army." 8LO answers.

"Well good luck to you." Heavyfire wishes as 8LO boards the Umbaran ship and it takes off, into the stars to go raise an army. Heavyfire then types up a quick report about the rebellion forming and sends it.

The rest of the clones submit reports as well. None of them had anything overly special except for Sniper's which involved Screecher.

A hooded figure puts down the data-pad with Heavyfire's report. "Track that ship, make sure those droids are eliminated. Also, bring me that dead banshee and a live one, we need figure out why that one could be trained." He says.

"My lord, but how are we going to learn a mental state from a dead creature?" Another hooded figure asks.

"We will resurrect it!" The hooded figure says, then pauses for a moment, as if he was in deep thought. "Go Tyranus be quick!"

 **Holy crap the took forever to finish! I did not mean for it to take this long at all! I really hope you enjoyed the Umbaran Story ark, it was really cool to write. The next chapter everything that Neon squadron knows about battle is about to change. Just in case anyone was wondering, I am aware that Tip-Lee doesn't command the 648th, that will be resolved in a later chapter. My question for all of you now is; which planet in Star Wars do you think is the least important, because I can guarantee you that Neon will be there eventually! Remember, I still would love to know who your favourite clone from Neon or Xerox squadron!**


	6. The Flood

**So sorry for the long wait! School's been really holding me up with this, but the chapter is out now and with Christmas break soon, I'll get a couple of chapters done before the New Year! Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy!**

Ash sits underwater, his helmet is just below him, just out of reach, it's been 5 minutes, he's running out of air, if only he could grab his helmet. Heavyfire and Scout are at either side of him, a few meters away, also without their helmets. His helmet has an oxygen tank attached to it, fitted for underwater combat. His underwater blaster is still in his right hand, he shakes his head then swims up a short way out of the pool. He gasps for air and looks up at Star, he's holding 3 timers with Ender behind him talking to other members of the 648th. Heavyfire surfaces next to him and Star stops a timer, Scout pops up shortly after and Star stops the last timer. Ash pushes himself out of the pool and the rest follow. "Well, first, Ash you made it 5 minutes and 36 seconds. Heavyfire, 6 minutes, 3 seconds and Scout, 6 minutes 24 seconds." Star reports, the clones sigh with a little disappointment. "It's not bad, but if you lose your helmet while we're underwater, you could have no oxygen for longer, you can potentially survive 10 minutes without oxygen as clone troopers, but only with some training, you need to try again." Star says.

"Yes sir. Just, give us a minute." Ash replies.

"When you're ready." Star says, the clones nod and dive back underwater and Star starts the time again.

Oddshot is running an underwater obstacle course that clones must go through and make it through without being shot by the several stun blasts coming from the side of the pool. Ace follows 2 clones, Ash had told him their names were Brightside and Sunshine. Best friends since they were cadets, the two were part of the last batch of shinnies taken by the 648th until Neon squadron joined. They dive through a tunnel which to Ace, is the scariest part. No way to dodge and out in the open, not a good place to be. The clone behind Ace tells him to move over, and the clone starts passing Ace, believing he can get it done faster, but as he passes Ace, a bolt pierces his chest. That would've killed him in a real battle. Brightside exits the tunnel with Sunshine at his tail. Ace does his best to stay with them, hoping that safety in numbers will pay off and he won't have to this course again. They find a piece of cover as the blaster fire intensifies, the finish is close, he can see it. By the time they're ready to make the final push to the finish line, 4 more clones had joined them. Brightside gives the signal and they split up, half going out each side of the cover and opening fire on the stun guns. They rush towards the finish line and Ace dives toward it just as a bolt whizzes over his head, he can keep his title of never being hit. The 4 "surviving" clones in his group get out of the pool and report to Oddshot. "Well done men, you've passed this test, you can go and rest, report to Fireball for your next test in 03:00." Oddshot informs and the clones solute and walk towards the barracks.

It's Fireball's test that's the hardest, it's the same obstacle course as Oddshot's but this time, you have an entire platoon of droids following you. To complete the test, you and your squad of 15, must take down all of the droids and make it through the obstacle course at the same time. Snipers squad just entered and it already doesn't look to good. Copter is with them but that doesn't help when you're out in the open water against a platoon. The squad rushes into the maze section, only losing one clone in the process. The droids are much faster than them in the water, especially the Aqua-Droids. As the squad rushes through the maze, Sniper falls behind and one of the Aqua-Droids grabs his ankle and pulls him back. Luckily, Copter shoots the droid before it gets Sniper, but the clone next to him still gets shot. Once through, the maze they enter the hurdles, Sniper's main focus is get to the front so that when they get to the tunnel, he's not the first target. He passes a few clones as they shoot at the droids. A few minutes later, the remaining 10 clones enter the tunnel. Copter, along with three others stay in the tunnel and start fending off droids until all four of them are dead. Sniper, shoots at the remaining droids from a distance, his sharp shooting allows the remaining members of the squad to finish of the last of the droids, but what Sniper failed to see, was the bomb that a droid had thrown during the battle land right next to him. It detonates, leaving only the 5 other clones with a pass, the rest will have to do it again.

After a long day of vigorous training, the clones head to the mess hall to eat supper. Neon sits together as always, talking about their day of training and anything cool that happened throughout it. Green stands in the center of the mess hall and fires a stun bolt up into the ceiling to get everyone's attention. One everyone turned to watch him he began speaking. "This has been the ninth day of training for this mission. It's been tough, I know. This is all new terrain to all of us, but together, we have gotten every soldier to pass all 5 tests and ready for battle. This relief mission to Mon Cala shouldn't be to much of a problem, one of their government officials reported a recent storm took out a large amount of their power and supplies. All we have to do is bring down more supplies to the people and investigate what caused the storm. We will divide our legion into groups of 30 for each settlement, 60 for the major cities, and 90 for the capital. This mission should only take half a rotation, no casualties, but all this training is important in the event something happens. We will enter the Mon Cala system in 1 rotation so enjoy that time off until departure. Enjoy your meal everyone!"

Scout wakes up, still on Umbara. He can't feel his legs and he can't see or hear anything. Blurs of orange flames block his visor from picking out anything else. His head is pounding and he can't think. He knows he has to get up, his friends, his brothers are in danger, he needs to help them. His hearing returns and he can hear screams of pain. "Scout, help me!" They scream. His vision returns and he can feel his legs again. He stands up and his eyes fill with horror. The rest of Neon squadron was on fire, burning to death. He was to late. Ace is the closest to him, he doesn't have his helmet on and his face is melting. "Scout!" He shouts. "Scout!"

Scout is shaking violently in his bunk. "No!" He cries. Ace is next to him, trying to keep him steady. The medic Rogue, had warned them that nightmares are a common side effect from traumatic battles, especially as shinnies. However, with Scout still recovering from his injuries, his nightmares are prone to cause seizures. Rogue rushes into the barracks and straight for Scout with a stimulant in his hand. He injects Scout, and Scout stops shaking.

"Will he be okay for the mission?" Ace asks.

"So long as he doesn't fall asleep, he should be fine." Rogue replies.

"Thank you sir." Ace replies.

It's late, well early depending on how you look at it. Sniper can't sleep, he's to distracted. He needs to do something to take his mind away from his thoughts. He's terrified of the new mission, out in the open and the chance of being shot at from literally all directions with little to no cover. He stands up and walks towards the gym. As he passes through the cruiser, he realizes how quiet and empty it is. It's a strange sight to see, it looks like an abandoned ship, being sent into demolition. He enters the gym, the lights are already on to his surprise. He looks around and sees another clone, Green. He's on a very fast moving treadmill, keeping up with it perfectly, he sees Sniper and slows down. "Trooper?" Green asks.

"I'm just here to distract my brain from the mission." Sniper replies.

"Scared?" Green asks as Sniper gets on the treadmill next to him.

"Kind of, yeah."

"Me to."

"Really?" Sniper asked, startled. "I figured this would be no problem for you."

"Nah, I'm terrified." Green replies.

"I assumed that you being part of Commander Star's elite squad, nothing could scare you."

"I'm, I'm like the younger brother. The one that's good at their job, but the rest are better. I'm always worried that I'll let my men down because if you had to rank the 5 of us, I'm number 5. Green explains.

"Maybe you are, but there are thousands of clones in this legion and you're number 5. That's really good!" Sniper replies.

"I guess, but they don't have the stress of leadership. I mean, I may survive, but if they die, it's on me." Green expresses.

"You'll be fine, you're only leading 59 others, I'm sure that's nothing compared to your previous battles." Sniper assures.

"I wish, I'm leading the capital with the General."

"Shouldn't that make you feel better?" Sniper asks.

"Tip-Lee is an excellent Jedi, but there's a reason her and her twin sister lead together." Green answers. Sniper ponders on the thought for a moment .

"I don't think it should matter that much, it's only a relief mission." Sniper replies.

"You're Sniper, right?" Green asks.

"Yeah, that's what they call me." Sniper replies.

"I hope you're right Sniper, I hope you are right."

The next morning comes by fast, and before he knows it, Ace and the rest of his squad are loading into their LAAT. Ace is already having flashbacks, he's scared that the LAAT will crash like the last one. The last few clones load into the ship then it takes off, towards the planet. The last 3 missions, this part of the mission was always dead silent, everyone tense and battle ready. This time however, everyone is talking. "They're really not scared at all about this landing this time." Ace points out to Scout who is twitching his fingers, clearly stressed out.

"It's just a relief mission, they have no reason to be scared." Scout replies.

"Then why are you scared?" Ace asks.

"Last time I was in a LAAT, I nearly died." Scout answers.

"Well, we'll be fine this time brother." Ace reassures.

Heavyfire is having a great time, down to the planet. He's enjoying his conversation with a few other Umbaran survivors. "Hope you can swim with that thing strapped to you!" Brightside jokes as he laughs at Copter who has an astromech droid strapped to him.

"Why do we have to take it with us?" Copter complains.

"Because," One clone speaks up. "That way we can fix their data banks way faster." He finishes with a smart-ass tone.

"Oi pilot!" Copter calls out.

"Yes sir?" The pilot replies.

"Are we at the drop-zone?"

"Yes sir! Ready for your exit!"

"Perfect, open the doors!" Copter orders and the doors slide open. "On my command!" Copter pauses for a moment then pushes the clone who replied to his question out of the LAAT and into the water. "GO!" The clones jump into the water, Ash jumps first and watches as the other clones hit the water, bubbles everywhere. The oxygen tank activates and Ash starts swimming down towards the city, following the Jedi.

The descent is quiet, clones everywhere, swimming with the supply crates, filled with food and first-aid supplies. The city is in view and it looks fine, as if there wasn't a single problem. No visible damage. They reach the city, it's a ghost town, dead bodies scattered everywhere. "Drop the crates in that building, with astromech, leave 10 men to guard, the rest split up and search for survivors. We must find the king!" Tip-Lee orders.

"Yes sir!" Echoes throughout the city, and everyone splits up in groups of 5.

Heavyfire joins Brightside and Sunshine, along with 2 other clones. They're searching for survivors inside the energy factory. Heavyfire turns into another room. "Clear." He says. So far, not a single sign of life has been found but dead bodies. Brightside turns into a new room.

"Guys, you're going to want to check this out." He says. The other 4 swim into the room and gasp. Dozens of Mon Calamari bodies are floating in the room.

"What the hell?" One clone gasps.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Heavyfire says.

"Slasher, how'd they die?" Brightside asks. Slasher touches a body, then scans it .

"No bullet marks, and a high level of... shit! Warn all clones to stay away from the bodies! If they haven't been with 3 feet of a body, leave the city! This could be planetary! Warn everyone!" Slasher orders. Brightside obeys, then asks.

"What's happened?" Slasher looks at him.

"The Flood has came to this city."

Ace and Scout, watch as the majority of the clones swim up and away, the Jedi with them. Brightside just told them that the flood is in the water. "What is the flood?" Ace asks.

"A disease, that infects through the water. When the disease gets into the water, it stays in the water until it hasn't got a living victim left for three days, then it dies off. It possesses it's victims, immediately killing them, and keeping their corpses as transportation, they can shoot jets of water from their hands, and there is no cure. Wherever the Mon Calamari are, they're safe, but since we've been to close to the dead bodies, the disease could be on our armor. If the disease were to outbreak in our squad, chances are, we all die and cause a devastating loss for the Republic." Scout answers.

"So why aren't those corpses moving?" Ace asks, gesturing to the corpses that have no floated around to the point where they're surrounding him and Scout.

"Aw shit." Scout says and the bodies all start moving. They face the two clones and outstretch their arms towards them. Scout and Ace open fire, but the bodies don't stop, they keep slowly moving towards Scout and Ace. "Swim down!" Scout calls out, and they both dive down lower and lower, dodging blasts of water on the way down. Scout has an idea, if they dive deep enough, the pressure should crush the corpses, while the clones armor would protect Ace and Scout. However, the theory wouldn't get to be tested, as two Quarren throw detonators and the corpses and they blow up. The two Quarren swim to the two clones. "Come with us." One says, their both wearing underwater protection suits to keep them dry and away from the Flood.

They swim for quite some time, until the city is out of view. "We're clear, and both clones aren't infected." One reports, and they both remove their armor. "Are their any Mon Calamari survivors?"

"We haven't found any as of yet, but we're still missing thousands of bodies, it is likely that they escaped." Ace answers.

"There were 4500 left behind, the rest are here." The Quarren replies.

"That leaves at maximum 300 survivors still in the city." Scout reports.

"We are trying to quarantine the city to kill off the virus, but we have distinct orders to hold off until Prince Lee-Char is safe." The Quarren informs Ace.

"Then we should go back!" Ace says.

"Not until we have reported to the king. Otherwise we will be considered dead and they will send others out, not knowing what you do. Come soldiers, we will return."

There's 24 of them. The admiral had reported to Star a little while ago. 24 clones trapped in the city with a very deadly disease. The only natives they've found are dead. The Flood has been contained in the city, but it's looking grim. The report from the government official, had actually been a Flood victim. Star can't stand the thought of having his men trapped in the city with a high likely hood of death in one of the worst ways possible. Star had ordered a medical sub when the admiral had called, it's here now.

"Froster, Moko, let's load up!" He orders. Star is bringing the two clones with him to help him pick up the trapped 24. The three clones enter the sub, Star and Moko head for the cockpit and start driving to the Flooded city.

Sniper and Ash found Green and Rogue after the corpses started moving. Sniper and Ash lost the two clones with them to the Flood, as did Green and Rogue. Surrounded from all sides, with no cover, just as Sniper feared. "Don't let them take off your helmets!" Green orders. "And don't get hit by their jet streams!" He adds as a jet of water fires from one of the Flooded hands. The clones open fire on the bodies, Sniper hits one directly through the brain. It stops for a moment, it's head pulled way back. It moves it's head back into place and keeps moving towards the clones. Ash grabs a detonator and throws it at the flood on their left. It explodes, blowing a few of them to bits. The clones take their chance and swim that way to escape. They keep swimming away, the Flood not to far away, they find a building and dive in, closing and locking the door behind them. The water begins to drain from the room that they're in. It's an airlock of some sort. Once all the water is gone a heater turns on.

"Sir! Temperatures rising passed 50 degrees Celsius!" Rogue reports.

"Our suits should keep us safe." Green replies as steam starts coming off of their armor.

"Should" Ash repeats then chuckles. After 15 minutes, the heater turns off and the door to the rest of the building opens. Green leads, weapons at the ready, the others carefully follow him. They enter the main hall where they find 5 Mon Cala survivors, alive!

"Prince Lee-Char! What happened here? And where is your father?" Green asks.

The prince has a grim look on his face. "The Flood came in through one of our shipping crates. After 40 infections, an evacuation of the city was ordered. I, along wit 4499 others, didn't escape. Now there is only 46 of us left. But with you guys here, we can rest assured that this will be soon over!"

"Yeah, you can." Green lies. "I just need to report to the others where we are, so that we can regroup." Green sends a transmission to all 16 remaining clones not in the building. "This is squad leader Green, everyone report to my co-ordinates." He immediately gets a reply.

"This is Scout, myself and Ash have exited the city with two Quarren to go see the king." Scout replies.

"Report to me after your meeting." Green orders.

"Yes sir." Scout replies and hangs up.

The flood shoot Slasher and the other clone with their jet streams. Heavyfire, Brightside and Sunshine rush through the factory toward the exit. Followed by the hundreds of Flood victims in the factory. They reach the exit. They reach the exit and start opening the door. "Hurry!" Heavyfire urges Brightside. The Flooded are getting closer and closer. Sunshine throws two detonators killing a few but it doesn't slow the rest. The door opens and the Flooded shoot jets of water at the clones. It hits Sunshine just as they close the door. The stream has hit him in the chest, exposing his skin to the water. The skin goes scaly.

"Sunshine no!" Brightside cries out.

It's to late for me, I'll be dead in a few minutes." Sunshine says as he arms all his detonators. "I'm not going to become on of them."

Brightside is silent for a moment, then solutes, as does Heavyfire. "Good luck!" Brightside says.

Sunshine begins opening the door, the latch comes undone. "Live to fight another day boys." Sunshine dives in and detonates the bombs, the factory follows in a massive explosion. Heavyfire and Brightside swim away, just receiving the transmission to join Green. Leaving just 11 clones left in the city.

Ace and Scout enter a building where King Yos Kolina is waiting. Ace and Scout tell him everything they know. The king ponders on their words, sighing with despair.

"Tell me, is my son alive?" He asks.

"We just got a report from our squad leader. He along with 45 others are still alive and well in a building near the edge of the city." Scout answers.

The king sighs with relief. "Get my personal sub, we're going to pick them up."

"Dear king of Mon Cala," a clone from behind Scout and Ace says. I'd hold off, if I were you. Let me and my men do it. You're life is much to valuable to the Flood."

"Who are you?" The king asks.

"Commander Star, at your service."

"Double time Commander, I want them out of there as soon as possible!"

"Of course sir! Ace, Scout, with me!" Star replies and the three clones rush out, towards the sub where Moko and Froster are waiting.

All the surviving clones and Mon Calamari are inside the building now. Only 7 clones remain, they've begun suiting up the Mon Calamari in water proof armor. Star contacted Green a little while ago, ordering him to be ready when the medical sub arrived. Two Mon Calamari stare at a window, all of the Flood victims swarming outside. The two are in a glass room, ready when they were called to evacuate through the upper exit, where the Flood was not. Seven corpses are at the window, staring at them, distracting them from the Flood below the two Mon Calamari. The victims below them break the glass floor and grab one of the Mon Calamari. "Run!" He shouts to the other. The other runs but the Flood bursts through the room and catch her too. Both are shot with the jet stream, then converted into the next victims. An alarm blares and a metal case surrounds the building, then all the walls become encased with metal.

"What's happening!? Copter asks in a panicked state.

"The Flooded have broken into the building, we are going into lock down!" Lee-Char replies.

"Brightside, status report!" Green orders.

"Everyone is here except for two Mon Calamari! My scanners pick up no life forms, they're dead." Brightside reports as the alarm stops.

"We're trapped in here." Lee-Char exclaims.

"No, we're not. Ash, Sniper, get that door open! We need to get to the top of this building!" Green orders.

"Yes sir." They both reply and grab their hand held blow torches from their utility belts and get to work.

"How do you know that room is safe!?" Lee-Char asks Green.

"Good point. Brightside, stay with them, use your scanner to detect water levels. If the water level is 0% proceed. Otherwise, we improvise." Green orders. Brightside nods and gets to work. "Heavyfire, Copter, continue getting the Mon Calamari ready to evacuate. Rogue, with me, we're being hailed by the Commander."

"With all due respect, Green, I would like to be present for the conversation." Lee-Char adds.

"Alright, come along then." Green replies and they head into a private corner off the main hall.

Ash and Sniper finish the first door and enter the next room where three doors are present. "Brightside, scan each door, tell us which one is our best option." Sniper orders.

"Just because your opening the doors, does not put you in charge of me. I am a higher rank." Brightside reminds as he scans the door.

"Sorry sir, just nervous. One little screw up and we're all dead." Sniper replies.

"It's okay trooper, I understand your situation, if I had opened the door in the factory sooner, Sunshine would still be alive." Brightside says.

"I don't think you could've. Those doors take 30 seconds to open, Heavyfire told us the full story, Sunshine would've died either way.

" _I could've saved him._ " Brightside insists as he scans the last door. "That door is the one you should open." He points to the left most door.

Ash and Sniper begin working on the next door. Ash solely focused on his work, while Sniper continues to chat with Brightside. "Well, if I hadn't fallen during the Kamino Outpost skirmish, maybe Grievous wouldn't have gotten away, there are a lot of mistakes made in war, but they aren't always our fault, if we dwell on our past, we'll never move on to the future as better soldiers." Sniper tells Brightside.

Brightside stays quiet as the door opens and they head to the next one, not really knowing what to say. He scans the next door. "This one is an elevator, 0% water level. Get to work, we can get out through here!" He orders and Ash and Sniper rush for the door and get to work.

Heavyfire and Copter finish suiting up the last of the Mon Calamari and they lead them to the elevator, ready to exit. Green was just told that Star is waiting at the top now, Froster, Ace and Scout ready to take in the survivors. The elevator door opens, the elevator, of course is broken. The clones fire their extension cables and give their guns to the first 6 Mon Calamari, Heavyfire joins them to help with the transportation of the survivors to the sub. They start reclining the line and going up the shaft to the top. At the top, Heavyfire lets Mon Calamari enter the airlock and then ejects them into the water, where the clones in the medical sub pick them up. Heavyfire tosses the guns down, extending the line again and more Mon Calamari rise up.

The last ones to climb are the other six clones, as they begin their ascent, the elevator shaft starts filing with water, the Flood are here. Corpses start shooting jet streams at the clones, the clones drop detonators, but it doesn't stop all of the corpses. Sniper's line stops ascending. "Sniper! Come on!" Green orders.

"I can't! The wire is jammed!" Sniper replies.

"Sniper I'm coming!" Brightside replies and descends towards Sniper.

"The line won't hold both of us!" Sniper points out.

"I know!" Brightside replies and gives Sniper his gun then grabs Snipers gun and pushes him away.

"You were right! We need to move forward as better soldiers, so I'm saving your life." Brightside says as he tries to climb the wire and the rest of the clones ascend. The Flooded are getting closer, and Brightside slips down the wire, he activates his detonators, realizing what happens next. "I'm going to see Sunshine!"

"No! Brightside, try to keep climbing!" Sniper urges as the rest of the clones reach the top.

"Live to fight another day brothers! Live to fight another day." Brightside says then lets go of the wire and falls into the water, then he activates the detonators, blowing up the bottom of the elevator. The building begins to shake as Sniper reaches the top. Ash helps him out and they dive for the airlock and eject themselves. Joining the rest of the survivors. The enter the sub and the door closes, they take off, away from the city. Sniper, still shook from the loss of Brightside, Ash pats his soldier.

"He was a good soldier." Ash says.

"And a good friend." Sniper adds, and the sub surfaces. They board a transport and drop off the Mon Calamari survivors with the king.

On board the star cruiser, Sniper and Ash walk down an empty hall. The lights flicker and all of a sudden Sniper can see writing on the walls. "Do you see that?" He asks Ash.

"See what?" Ash asks.

"The writing on the walls." Sniper answers.

"There's nothing on the walls Sniper." Ash replies, concerned.

"No, there is!" Sniper insists.

"Well what does it say?" Ash asks.

"You will meet the same fate as they did." Sniper reads.

"What?" Ash says confused.

"You're time is coming."

"Come on, let's get you to the medical bay." Ash says.

"You're journey is ending... You're life is ending."

 **Thanks for reading everyone! Please let me know what you think about this chapter in the comments. Do you think Sunshine and Brightsides' deaths were easily avoidable? (Aside from the line malfunction) Since this is the last one for a while regarding the 648th, let me know who were your favourite members of the 648th and of the elite squadron! Next time on Neon Squadron: The squadron leaves the 648th and boards a 212th star cruiser to get back to the 501st, but when droids attack, will they be able to make it there, in one piece?**


	7. Bomber Squadron

Neon squadron sits in the docking bay, ready to leave the 648th and head back to the 501st. Star and his squadron approach them, ready to see them off. LAATs and Y-Wings line the walls of the bay. The sounds of mechanical tools echo throughout the bay as mechanics repair the damaged ships and clones scour the bay, holding crates of ammunition and rations sent in by General Kenobi. "You five have been some of the best men I've met. I am honoured to have fought by your side and can't wait for our next meeting. You will now board a 212th Attack Battalion light cruiser, commanded by none other than Major Clone Trooper Metal, leader of Bomber squadron along with the rest of his men. There are 30 highly trained soldiers, not only in combat, but with technology and machines. He and his main squad alone could take down an entire battalion of battle droids; they don't mess around. Make sure to respect their authority, they don't know you yet and may under estimate you. Good luck men." Star informs, anxious as he finishes his speech.

"Yes sir!" Echoes through the bay.

"Hey, keep yourselves safe." Star adds.

"Star, calm down, we'll be fine." Ace reassures trying to calm down the Commander whose mind seems to start panicking.

"I know, I'm just... briefing you on your next assignment." Star replies.

"Ha! Ha! The Commander has feelings!" Fireball teases. Star elbows him in the gut, Fireball groans and holds his gut as he falls to the ground.

"Don't worry, we'll miss you too." Scout laughs backing away from Star as to not get hit.

"Good luck you. Thanks for the help Sniper, you're a good man." Green adds.

"I expect to see all of at Kamino, for your ARC training, now get going!" Star orders.

"Yes sir!" they reply in unison and salute. They board their LAAT and they take off towards the transport ship the "Striker" where Bomber squadron is waiting.

The ride is silent. Scout is holding on to the handle with both hands for dear life while Ash is half asleep. Sniper is missing the 648th already and is still mourning the death of Brightside. This leaves Ace and Heavyfire to their thoughts. _Another legendary squadron! As great as it will be when he's with the 501st eventually. I'd rather be with Bomber squadron._ Ace thinks, excited for this change. Heavyfire however, just wants to see Hardcase again. He breaks the silence. "I don't know about you guys. But, I cannot wait to get to the 501st!"

"Personally, I just want to sleep." Ash states and the clones chuckle.

"All I want is some new leg armor." Scout gestures to his scorched leg armor from Umbara. The 648th had been unable to supply the clones with new armor after Umbara, due to the already gigantic shipment of aqua armor.

"I think it's cool." Ace points out supporting his friend as he gestures to the bullet hole in his helmet.

"I can't wait to check out the ship and battle plans." Sniper adds.

"Borrrrrring! I hope we get a mission while we're there, I want to shoot up some droids!" Heavyfire says loudly as he waves his Z-6.

"If it involves staying in my bunk I'm in." Ash replies as he yawns.

"I know Ash plans on sleeping when we get there, but I personally plan on heading to the shooting range, anyone interested?" Ace grins under his helmet and Scout nods.

"Yeah, I'm in." Scout replies.

Sniper hears Heavyfire say something but can't pick it out. His vision goes blurry and all of a sudden he can hear a loud, high pitched ringing in his ears. His head starts pounding and he curls into a ball on the ground, screaming in pain. He feels a hammering to his head for a split second, then everything goes dark and silent. He hears a hissing noise whisper "you're next" before passing out.

He wakes up in a bright room with a medical droid leaning over him. His squad is standing around his bed, except for Ash who's asleep on a bench. Sniper is laying in a medical bed; not the most comfy thing in the galaxy. The droid notices Sniper staring at him, it backs up.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Scout smiles.

"How long have I been out?" Sniper asks, rubbing his head as he slowly sits up.

"Two rotations. The medics say it was trauma." Ace frowns as he looks at the medical report in his hand.

"Right. Trauma. Obviously. Did you get to meet Metal?" Sniper asks.

"No. We rushed you here and have been here ever since. He sent down one of his squad members down to tell us that he's occupied on the bridge and will get to talk to us eventually." Ace informs him as he puts the data pad down.

"Alright, want to hit the shooting range?" As Sniper tries to stand up Heavyfire lays a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"You haven't been cleared to leave yet." Heavyfire reminds Sniper who reluctantly lays back down. The medical droid approaches the clones.

"All of you except the one they call Sniper have been ordered to the docking bay immediately." It reports in a monotone voice. The clones nod and put on their helmets. Ace wakes Ash who groans as he stands up. As they start running for the docking bay, Ash turns around. "We'll be back"

A Separatist star cruiser exits hyperspace. On the bridge, General Grievous sits in the command chair.

"Sir, a Republic transport is in range!" a B1 battle droid reports.

"Cripple it's defenses, then prepare a boarding party! Let's have some fun." Grievous chuckles at the thought of slicing through the clone troopers.

"But sir! We've already lost many of our forces recovering those creatures!" The droid exclaims.

"Don't push me droid!" Grievous growls.

"Roger-roger," the droid replies in a depressed tone, it pushes a few buttons. "Weapons ready... Fire!"

"Shouldn't we head for the escape pods?!" Ash shouts over the exploding circuits to a member of Bomber squadron. They've been positioned in the hangar to push back invaders.

"If they were trying to blow us up, they would've done it already. They're toying with us. We're going to ruin their fun." the clone replies, his voice is raspy and different.

"Sounds like fun!" Heavyfire shouts, loading his weapon.

"Are you okay?" Ash asks the clone.

"It's a long story, but I'm fine, the name is Bomber. Known for obliterating literally everything, each time I get the chance."

"You sure ended up in a very suiting squadron." Ash states.

"Yeah, I get teased for it all the time. then all of a sudden they find themselves in the medical bay in a bed with a concussion. Funny how those things work out." Bomber replies with a smirk.

"Yeah, funny." Ash agrees uneasily.

The lights go out. In the darkness they can hear a ship dock and the hangar doors open. Two green and two blue lightsabers activate and the lights turn back on, revealing Grievous and a platoon of droids. "Attack!" One clone shouts and both sides open fire. Grievous charges, trying to cut through clones. Bomber squadron is able to dodge the sabers, frustrating Grievous. A clone jumps onto Grievous' back and shoots off two of his arms before getting thrown off. The shooting stops and everyone watches the two battle it out. The clone has a grey left hand, presumably metal and is holding two pistols, Ash can only assume that it's Major Metal. Everyone is dead silent as they watch the clone throw his pistols at Grievous, hitting him square in the wrists, knocking out his other two lightsabers. The clone dives at Grievous and punches him with his metal hand, knocking the cyborg back. Grievous stomps towards the clone, grabbing lightsabers on the way. He starts rotating the sabers faster and faster gutting the ground in front of Metal.

"I don't think so," the clone says like a bad-ass and fires his hand out of his wrist and into Grievous, launching him into the wall. His hand flies back into his wrist and makes a clicking noise. "Men, let's get out of here. Bomber, you know what to do." The clone calmly walks out of the hangar and the clones follow him out as Bomber opens fire at the droids. Once all the clones are out of the hangar Bomber smirks. "Gotcha!" he pushes a button on his wrist comm.. The hangar blows up, obliterating all of the droids, but doubting he got Grievous. The clones reach the escape pods and start boarding them. Ash begins to board the escape pod with the rest of Neon squadron when he stops.

"What about Sniper?!" he asks in panic.

"They would've evacuated him already!" Scout replies and drags Ash into the escape pod. "Launch!"

The ride is rough and bumpy. The landing surely won't be any better. No one has died as of yet and not wanting to be the first, Ash takes control of the pod. "We've entered the atmosphere of Endor's moon!" he reports to the other three. Everyone tightens their restraints and grips their shoulder straps tightly. "Prepare for impact in about 5 minutes!" Everyone shuts their eyes, the pod creaks and starts cracking in the centre. The clones open their eyes to see something trying to tear the pod apart. "What the?!" Claws sink into the pod and the clones open fire to no avail. The metal screeches and the pod begins separating. Ash gets a glimpse of the creature; winged, a beak full of teeth, giant leaf like tail and absolutely gigantic. He shoots at the creature itself; still no reaction. The pod finally separates, Ash and Scout plummet to the ground in the front half of the ship, while the creature flies of with the other half.

The pod slams into the ground. Ash and Scout groan as they wait for the pod to stop. Ash looks through the front window - the pod is going to slam into a giant tree. "Scout! Eject!" Ash shouts as he undoes his restraints and flies out of the pod. Scout follows suit and lands next to him. The pod hits the tree and the tree snaps and starts falling towards the clones.

"Run for it!" Scout shouts as they scramble to get out of the way. It crashes to the ground with the force of a bomb. Scout and Ash feel their feet leave the ground as they are propelled towards a cliff. They land on their fronts hard and continue sliding. Scout slips off the edge of the cliff but Ash catches him by the ankle.

"I've got you brother!" Ash shouts. Scout dangles off the edge of the giant cliff, upside down.

"Can you pull me up!?" Scout yells in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, I guess." Ash jokes as he hauls his brother back onto the ground. They both gasp for air.

"Yib yub to no," a strange voice says from behind them. The two clones turn around to see at least 20 Ewoks with spears pointed at the clones faces. Ash looks at Scout and puts down his weapon, Scout follows suit and they put their hands up. (Ash looks at Scout and shrugs. They put down their weapons and put their hands up) An Ewok grabs their blasters and they begin leading Scout and Ash to an unknown location.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Ash states bluntly.

"At least they haven't eaten us." Scout replies in a joking manor.

"Yet." Ash adds.

"Great job on focusing on the positive." Scout says sarcastically.

"Like what?"

"We're not being carried by a giant monster who's only goal is to eat us alive."

"I'd take a bullet proof monster over man-eating teddy bears any day."

Heavyfire and Ace unbuckle their seats, Ace peaks over the edge. Way to high to jump now. He looks around, trying to find a way out of t he situation. He sees three vulture droids emerge from the clouds and start following the beast and open fire.

"Heavyfire, we've got vulture droids shooting at the creature!" Ace shouts down to him.

"Good, let them."

"If it drops, we'll fall down to fast and we'll die, the pod isn't exactly structurally sound anymore." Ace points out.

"Damn it Ace, just let me think." Heavyfire snorts as he gets up and fires at the droids.

"Target the eyes, if the can't see, they'll crash!" Ace shouts to Heavyfire over the wind. After trying and failing, Heavyfire stops.

"This is pointless! I have a better idea!" Heavyfire states as he grabs his extension cable and fires it at the droid.

"Are you crazy!?" Ace shouts back, bewildered by his friends stupidity.

"Beats falling to my death without a fight!" Heavyfire replies and jumps. "Ahhhhhhhaha!" He screams. Ace sighs, not wanting to die alone, he fires his cable at the same droid. Bracing himself, he jumps and starts falling. He can feel the wind through the hole in his helmet. The wind lashing at his forehead with pure coldness. He feels a jerk on his blaster, he tightens his grip on it, he dare not let go. He's behind the droid now, Heavyfire is already on the droid, doing something to the right wing of the droid. Ace starts reclining his wire and Heavyfire works his way to the left wing. Ace joins him just as the right wing starts sputtering and smoking.

"What did you do?" Ace asks, annoyed that Heavyfire still hasn't told him the plan.

"Making sure we have a ride down!" Heavyfire replies proudly.

"If we die, I will never let you live this down!" Ace threatens.

"If we live, I will never let you live down the fact that you doubted me!" Heavyfire shoots back. Ace roles his eyes, and holds onto the droid as it slowly descends towards the forest planet below.

Sniper's pod hits the ground, with a strong impact. All the clones in the pod groan as it comes to a stop. They get up and exit the pod. There's five of them in the pod, one of which is one of the clone legends. CT-3268, Scar. War hero on the battle of Geonosis, Aargonar, Abregado, Tibrin and Mimban. "Courser, check for other pods in the area using our pod's tracking devices. Tulu, Jahar, scan the area for hostiles, remember, the Ewoks are our friends, do not scare them, or you'll meet a fate worse than death by blaster. Shiny, you're with me, we've got to scale this tree and get the layout of the land. Understood?" Scar orders.

"Yes sir!" The four clones replies and split up to do their tasks.

As Sniper scales the tree next to Scar, he can't help but ask him questions about Bomber squadron. "Is this all of you? Only 30 clones?"

"That's right shiny, and we rarely lose anyone." Scar brags.

"Great, I'll try not be the rare one." Sniper replies.

"Before you ask, no, I will not tell you how I got my scar." Scar adds and Sniper remembers the images Scar from the briefing room back with the 648th. He has giant scar from his forehead, down to his chin, going over one of his eyes. He has a robotic one in place of his lost eye, no one knows how he got except, Bomber squadron and Sniper isn't going to test his luck. They reach the top of the tree. Scar grabs binoculars and starts using them to survey the area. A giant beast carrying half of a pod enters view, followed by two vulture droids. The droids must've seen the clones because they stop following the beast and head towards the tree where Sniper and Scar are standing.

"Hurry! We need to get off this tree!" Scar orders, he pushes a button on his wrist comm. "Vulture droids incoming! Prepare for an attack!" Sniper and Scar quickly start descending down the tree, the vulture droids open fire on the tree, knocking the top of the tree off, falling down towards the clones. "Dive left!" Scar orders. Sniper obeys and the top of the tree passes him slightly to his right. They continue rushing down, and the vulture droids stop above the tree. They begin lowering down towards the pods crash site. "The droids are getting closer to the pod, Courser, I hope your done because you don't have much time left!" Scar warns through his wrist comm. The two clones reach the bottom of the tree just as the vulture droids do. They open fire, but the droids pay no attention to that, they instead shoot at the pod first. Courser dives out of the pod just as it explodes and he chucks a bag full of droid poppers at the droids, disabling both the droids. "Nice work Courser, did you get the location of the other pods?"

"Yes sir. The closest one is five klicks north." Courser reports.

"Let's move out!" Scar orders and the clones begin walking toward the closest pod.

Scout and Ash continue walking with the Ewoks, unaware of where they're going. "We've been walking for hours, where are they taking us?" Ash asks, annoyed.

"If they were going to kill us, they would've tied us up, they're taking us somewhere important, maybe they need help." Scout suggests hopefully.

"These guys really know how to ask someone for help." Ash replies sarcastically. They reach a tree village and they begin walking up to the main hut.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Scout says unknowing of their future.

"Yeah, shut up Scout." Ash snorts.

Inside, to their surprise, is the clone that beat up Grievous, along with two other clones. "What?!" Scout says in complete and utter shock.

"Welcome to our new home for a little while." The clone congratulates. "Where are the rest of the clones from your pod?"

"Our pod was attacked by a giant winged creature. The pod split in half, we were separated at that point." Scout informs sadly.

"It was probably a Glider." The clone replies.

"But those aren't native to the moon." Scout questions.

"We've caught word that the Separatists have been doing experiments on creature recently, turning them into monsters against the Republic, it seems one of them has escaped." The clone explains.

"Interesting." Scout replies.

"The rest of us are out looking for the remaining pods using the homing beacons inside the pods. Some clones were ordered before-hand to stay at their pod while others were told to leave, and find the others. That way it makes it easier to make the groups larger. We already have two groups of four out looking, you guys bring our numbers to 15 of 35." The clone explains.

"Metal, the ARF troopers are back from the hunting party." One of the clones interrupts.

"Thank you Fraud, bring them in. You two will accompany them to search for pod 411, our best sniper and scout is in that pod, CT-3266, Ghost."

"Yes sir!" The two clones reply and the ARF troopers enter the hut. Both of their armor is almost completely orange, one helmet has tally marks on the right side and a flames on the left. The other helmet has grey spikes painted around the top of the helmet with droids impaled on them.

"Rookies, this is Jets and Toner. Some of my finest men." Metal introduces, then an Ewok hands the clones a bowl full of what looks like soup. "Before you leave, drink and rest. You'll need to be in prime condition for your mission. After a couple of hours of rest, the four clones exit the hut, it's dark now. The only light comes from the torches in the village. Jets tosses them visors. "Put those on, it'll help you see in the dark." He says in a serious tone.

Ash and Scout clip them to their helmets and put them over their eyes, they can only see in shades of green and black, but it's better than nothing. "What about you guys?"

The two ARFs laugh for a moment then Toner answers the question. "We already have them implanted in our helmets."

"Cool, what exactly do ARF troopers do?" Scout asks, intrigued.

"We're the Advanced Recon Force, we do advanced scouting and recon missions but still get to stay with our squadron. We also get to ride AT-RT's which are insanely fun." Toner explains.

"What does it take to be an ARF trooper?" Scouts asks.

"First you have to have done a rather difficult scouting or recon mission. Then you must be promoted by your commanding officer. After that you'll be sent to Kamino for 45 rotations for training." Jets answers, still in his serious tone.

"So if this mission goes south, we could get promoted to ARF troopers?" Scout asks.

"Careful what you wish for shiny." Jets warns.

"I know, I'm not wishing, I just wanted an example." Scout defends.

"The galaxy works in very strange ways." Toner advises.

"Thanks for the warning." Scout replies sarcastically and rolls his eyes in his helmet.

The vulture droid crashed hours ago. Ace and Heavyfire have been walking around the forest for the past few hours and it has gotten dark out. They've lit a fire and are now sitting around it.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" Heavyfire asks.

"No doubt, once they get communications back up they'll be able to locate us. We just have to wait for that time." Ace answers.

"This sucks. We're trapped in the woods with-" Heavyfire's complaining is interrupted by a crackle in the woods. Both clones pull out their guns and duck behind trees. The crackling gets louder and louder until whatever it is, reached the fire. Ace looks at Heavyfire and sticks up his hand then counts down with his fingers, when he reaches zero they exit their cover with their guns up. Ace and Heavyfire immediately back away. There's a gigantic venom rat in standing near the fire. "Aren't those native only to the swamps?" It's a green and black rat, with giant sharp teeth and giant curved claws. It has six tiny blue eyes and is covered with fur and a long pink tail, at least six meters long. Ace's feet begin sinking in the ground.

"It appears we are in the swamp." He states, not keeping his eyes of the rat. "We need to back away slowly, if we startle it, it may shoot it's venom at us. One hit, will dissolve your armor and your skin."

"Right..." Heavyfire mutters. The two clones slowly back away, then Heavyfire trips. He splashes into the much behind him and his white armor becomes covered in mud up to his chest. "Ew!" He groans and the rat stares at him. "Aw no! Run for cover!" The two clones dive behind trees as venom splashes everywhere. Burning through the tree slowly, and the clones run away from those trees, the trees snap and fall towards the rat, crushing it.

"Well that was close." Ace jokes. Then four more venom rats crawl over the trees and glare at the two clones. Blaster shots hit the rats from behind and four clones climb over the trees.

"Bomber?" Heavyfire asks.

"That's right... er... I don't think I got your names." Bomber replies.

"Heavyfire, and this is Ace."

"To long, you're name is Fire." Bomber replies.

"It's Heavyfire."

"Fire." Bomber insists.

"I like it." Ace adds.

"Shut up." Heavyfire says sounding angry and elbows Ace.

"Come on you two, lets get you guys to the village. I like your armor Fire." Bomber teases at the mud covered armor. Heavyfire sighs and follows Ace to the rest of the squad.

Scar leads his men through the forest, all wearing night vision visors now. Sniper feels like they're wandering aimlessly. They finally see a village and Scar raises his visors. "Well done men, we've made it to the village. We need to check in with Metal, then all we have to do is wait to be picked up." They walk up to the hut and enter.

"Welcome back Scar." Metal congratulates.

"Has everyone else made it back?" Scar asked, concerned for his brothers.

"We've got two groups out still searching for the last six clones. Everyone else is reported for and we've taken no casualties." Metal reports. His wrist comm goes off.

"Sir! This is Bomber. We've found the other two shiny's. Heading back now, has the search party reported back yet?"

"Not yet, but they have Toner and Jets, I'm not concerned." Metal replies.

"Of course sir. They'll be fine of course. We will see 02:00 hours." Bomber says then cuts the signal.

"Are any members of Neon squadron here?" Sniper asks.

"Sorry trooper, your friends Scout and Ash are in a search party while Heavyfire and Ace were just found." Metal answers.

"Thank you sir. I'll be heading to a lookout station." Sniper replies steadily then exits. He slowly walks towards a lookout post, worried for the other four. As he walks he can't help but think about his recent visions telling him that "he's next." He's scared that it may happen again and what does it mean? If it were to happen during the battle, he and others could get hurt. He can see a clone standing at a lookout station, he seems tired. Sniper decides he'll go relieve him of his duty, but as he gets closer something bright hits the tree with the station on it and it explodes, launching the clone next to Sniper. He kneels down and tries to help the barely living trooper. He scoops him up and runs him back to the medical hut. "Keep him safe." He asks the Ewoks, and heads out of the hut with his blaster ready. Droids are attacking, platoons march into the village, some of them with flamethrowers. Sniper opens fire on the droids as the rest of Bomber squadron joins him. They're burning down the village. The droids are pushing the clones back, and quickly. Ewoks retreat into the forest, most make it, but a few are trapped inside the burning huts.

"There's too many of them! And it's to dark!" Scar shouts.

"Keep shooting! The Ewoks need to get out of the village first! Then we can retreat." Metal shouts back as he dives at a B2-battle droid and uses it's arm as a gun. The clones start pushing forward, Sniper dives behind a disabled B2 and uses it as a shield as he pushes forward.

"We got this!" Courser shouts as they start gaining ground. The droids light a bridge on fire as the clones reach it. The bridge collapses and two clones start falling and they fire extension cables into the village and climb back up. "Tanks!" He warns as giant canon blasts fire past the clones.

"Be careful! The whole place is coming down!" Metal orders. "We need to get out of the village! NOW!" The clones start to fall back towards an exit.

"Still think we won't lose anyone?" Sniper asks Scar.

"I'll get back to you if we survive this battle!" Scar replies.

Scout and Ash follow behind the ARFs. "What are you thinking?! Joining the ARF program?" Ash whispers to Scout.

"Yeah, I'd only be gone for 45 rotations." Scout replies.

"A lot can happen in 45 rotations! What is something happens to us while you're gone because you weren't there? You're an important member of the squad Scout, we need you." Ash pleads.

"You'll be fine, we're all very skilled and, being down a squad member could make you guys stronger." Scout replies reassuringly.

"Hey remember when I said you needed a mission to go really wrong to become an ARF?" Jets asks, not looking back at the clones.

"Yeah, why...?" Scouts asks, worried he may have jinxed them.

"I found the crew aboard pod-411." Jets replies and points to an army of droids, with ten full transports and five clones in cuffs near the main transport.

"Well, you wanted to be an ARF." Ash teases.

"Yeah." Scout replies. "And I've got a plan."

"Sorry shiny, but we've got this." Jets interrupts. "You guys just be ready to lay cover fire if we need it."

"Yes sir." Scout replies sadly. The two ARFs duck into the bushes and work their way towards the prisoners. Ash has his blaster pointed next to the ARFs ready to fire the moment he needs to. Scout on the other hand is climbing a tree to a branch not too high up from the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Ash asks. Unsure of what Scout is up to.

"Just getting a better place to shoot from." Scout lies as he lays down on the branch, in sniper position.

"Okay..." Ash replies, non-believing of Scouts reply.

The ARFs reach the prisoners and begin releasing them. "Freeze Republic dogs!" A B1 battle droid orders from behind the ARFs. They put their weapons on the ground and their hands up. Scout is about to open fire when Ash interrupts.

"Don't shoot! If they know we're here, they may kill all of the prisoners! We need to rethink the plan!" Ash warns.

"Already one step ahead of you brother! Cover me!" Scout orders confidently and starts moving down the branch.

"Are you crazy?! That won't work!" Ash states clearly and Scout stops and looks at him.

"Yes it will. Trust me." Scout insists.

"I can't let you do this..." Ash replies.

"It will work! I'm going now, cover me or not. I don't care." Scout insists again. Annoyed by Ash's refusal to accept his plan.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you kill the others." Ash sadly exclaims and points his blaster at Scout.

"Are you serious?! They won't die, and you won't shoot me." Scout halfheartedly laughs.

"Then you don't know me." Ash replies and fires his blaster.


	8. The Battle of Endor

A tank crashes into a tree supporting the village. Forcing the tree down and the village to collapse. Metal leads his men and they dive off the ledges and fire their extension cables at a nearby tree to break the fall. Sniper and Scar are in the back of the group when the tree gets hit. Flaming branches rain down on the village. One of which hits Scar and he falls to the ground with a burning branch on his left leg, crushing it slowly. He screams in pain. Sniper rushes towards him and hurls the branch off of Scar. "Come on! We have to go!" Sniper urges as he tries to help Scar up.

"I can't! My leg is broken!" Scar replies, clearly upset and panicked. Sniper goes to scoop him up but Scar pushes him away. "Run trooper! Save yourself, I hold out here as long as I can!" Scar orders.

"I can't just leave you here!" Sniper protests. As a flaming branch crashes to the ground near them.

"That is an order-ah!" Scar shouts as the floor underneath of him gives out, plummeting down towards the fiery ground.

"Scar!" Sniper tries to catch him, leaning over the spot that fell. He goes to stand up, but the rest of the village gives way and he plummets towards the ground.

"This is CT-532, the village has been overrun! All search parties do not return to the village! I repeat! Do not, return to the village!" The message cuts there and Bomber turns off his comm. He looks at his search party then pulls one clone aside. The others wait in anticipation for their new plan.

"So now what?" Heavyfire ask anxiously.

"Probably blast a lot of droids!" One clone cheers and arms his rifle.

"Shut it Blast, you'll scare the shiny's!" The other whispers slightly to loudly.

"We aren't afraid of them droids! Not sure if you heard but we took part in the lightning assault on Umbara and fought an army of them on Rishi." Heavyfire brags.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" Blast warns. "It only gets harder from here." The other clone elbows Blast.

"Good, I can't wait to see more droids!" Heavyfire claims.

"Those words will bite him in the ass later." Ace mutters to the other clone. A flash of white light brightens the entire forest for a split second, then a giant mushroom cloud can be seen in the distance.

"Sonic nuke! Wave incoming!" Blast warns.

"Quick! Climb the trees above the wave!" Ace shouts. They all fire their extension cables and advance up the thick tall trees. They climb as high as they can before the wave hits the tree at the bottom. Shattering the stumps, the trees fall to the ground. The clones detach their cables then jump off the trees at the last second. All they can see for decameters are downed trees. 2 hyena bombers come into view.

"Run for it!" Bomber shouts and the 6 clones run towards the forest. The bombers open fire on the clones, barely missing but obliterating already downed trees and launching the clones forward. The bombers swoop around for another run, the clones now stuck under trees and branches. They struggle, trying to pull themselves out. The bombers start their run but a squadron of Y-wings swoop in and destroy the bombers. 12 LAAT's follow and land in the freshly made "field". Clones in orange armor rush out of the transports and secure spread out. Many clones rush toward Bomber and his men. When they get close enough they lift the trees and branches off of them and help them up.

"Is it ever good to see you!" Bomber praises the clone who helps him up. Ace immediately recognizes who it is and stands at attention.

"Commander Cody! It's good to see you again sir!" He says.

"At ease Ace, it's good to be back with you. You've been building quite the reputation." Cody replies. "Fire, it's good to see you again too."

"It's uh, Heavyfire sir, not Fire." He reminds.

"Too long." Cody replies quickly.

"See? I'm not the only one that thinks that!" Bomber says loudly and Heavyfire's face turns red under his helmet. Cody begins shouting out orders.

"Fire, can you believe it?! Cody remembers us!" Ace whispers to him.

"You'll call me Heavyfire, understood?" He warns Ace in a menacing tone.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Waxer, Boil, I need you two to take your men south to stop the droid build up down there, there'll be tons of droid there but I know you can do it. This entire area must be secure for the rest of the 212th to land here! Let's move out!" Cody finishes.

"Great. Another fun job. Waxer mumbles to Boil as they depart with their men.

"Did we miss our orders?" Ace whispers to Heavyfire.

"Maybe, let's just hedge our bets and assume we're still with the rest of Bomber Squadron?" Heavyfire suggests.

"Yeah let's give it go." Ace says then crosses his fingers.

It's still dark out when the rest of the 212th lands in the field. Everyone regroups and heads into the forest to set up camp. Ace and Heavyfire sit on a log and watch as the LAAT's take off again.

"I'm still haunted from that sight. Those LAAT's were our only hope for survival, then they left us." Heavyfire states.

"In all fairness we were presumed dead." Ace reminds.

"And it wasn't all bad, I learned how to fly an Umbaran transport." Heavyfire brags.

"You and I both know that 8LO and his crew were flying, not you." Ace points out.

"Oh 8LO..." Heavyfire laughs, ignoring Ace's insult. "I wonder how his rebellion is going." Heavyfire wonders.

"Knowing him, probably pretty well. I hope we never go back to that rock." Ace replies.

"Or Rishi." Heavyfire adds.

"Mon Cala."

"Damn that city..." Heavyfire sighs, remembering Brightside and Sunshine.

"For once I'd like to go on a mission that goes as planned." Ace wishes.

"What about mission 1? The Kamino Outpost?" Heavyfire suggests.

"We failed, Grievous escaped, Ash tried to kill himself and Scout spent 15 minutes just trying to get an elevator to work." Ace reminds.

"I wonder how Trick and Charger are faring off in the 501st without us." Heavyfire thinks aloud. "Lucky bastards, didn't have to wait to get into the Legion."

"I think it's good that we've worked with the 212th and the 648th, more experience." Ace reasons.

"I guess... It was nice to meet all of those clones."

"Green, Star, Copter, Bomber, Suns-" Ace stops himself from saying Sunshine. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. At least it wasn't one of you." Heavyfire replies quietly.

"Let's get some rest." Ace suggests and stands up. Heavyfire nods and Ace helps him up, they walk back to camp to turn in for the rest of the night.

Sniper wakes up under something. _I can still feel all of my limbs, good._ Sniper thinks, he doesn't feel any pain but he can't see anything. He feels around for the objects around him. There's a tree, propped between two other trees leaving space for him to be unscathed. "How the hell?" Sniper asks himself. He switches flashlight on, next him is Scar, unconscious with an extension cable fired from his gun into the tree above them. "You creative little bugger..." He looks around, above him is a little bit of light, most likely the top of the trees. He rolls onto his front and crawls towards the light. He was right, he pokes his head out. Nothing but embers and scorched trees. He crawls out of Scar's "shelter" and stands up. Light rushes through his helmet and into his eyes. The glass from the left side of his helmet had shattered during the fall. He carefully takes off his helmet and feels around his neck for glass, then inside the helmet. It's not there, along with his night vision visors. He puts his helmet back on and frantically looks for the visor. "Scar's gonna kill me." He mutters. All signs of wildlife have vanished, it's as if the only living things for myriameters were him and Scar.

"Sniper!?" Scar shouts. Sniper dives into the shelter and crawls down to Scar. "I can't walk, remember? My leg is broken. Help me out of here." Sniper sighs and starts dragging Scar out of the shelter. He props Scar up against a tree so that he's sitting behind cover.

"Now what? We're not exactly a mobile unit." Sniper points out.

"I sent a distress call before I passed out. They'll be here eventually." Scar answers surly.

"Let me guess, our goal is to just make sure we're still here when they get here, and the droids most likely heard the distress call?" Snipers asks.

"Yup! And we'll be ready!" Scar replies and arms his rifle.

The prisoners had been moved into the ship a few hours ago. Ash still has no idea on how to save them without being caught or getting the prisoners killed. Scout lays limp on the ground his body haunting Ash's decision. He scans the area again. The droids are moving out of the area, away from the ship. "Nice try..." He mutters as he stares them down.

"You thought you could stop me?!" Scout grunts and starts sneaking through the tall grass.

"It's a trap brother!" Ash warns.

"Don't make me stun you!" Scout warns and points his gun at Ash.

"I'm not shooting you again." Ash replies, lowering his gun. "They're trying to draw us out, once you get inside the tank they'll surround you. I've had your back since the academy, please don't break our trust. You're passion to become an ARF has clouded your thoughts."

"I'll be back! Why don't you trust me?" Scout asks frustrated and runs off, sneaking into the transport. "Empty..." He mutters as he enters the ship. He carefully checks the cells and eventually finds the clones in the back cell. 5 of them are in the center of the room, kneeling and 1 clone laying near the exit, bloodied and disfigured.

"Scout?" Jets asks shocked that he got in but quietly. The room is very dark. "There's something in here with us! Don't move!"

Something touches Scout with long fingernails. He turns around quickly to find himself face to face with a young rancor. Only 8 feet tall. It grabs Scout and rips his blaster away from him then throws him at all, he falls and groans on the ground. The rancor stomps towards him and picks him up, throwing him again. "Anytime you'd like to help would be great!"

Ash watches the ship begin to shake and the droids surround the ship just as Ash had thought. "That's not good..." He mutters to himself and pulls out some detonators. "Not gonna let him die." Ash throws the detonators at the droids and blows up several. He charges in, opening fire on them. He rams into them with brute force and shoots down another few. The droids are closing in on him when he realizes how to win. He's thinking like a normal soldier, when what he needs to do is empower what he's good at. He grabs a battle droid and throws it at the others, knocking down a few more tin can soldiers. One droid pulls out a rocket launcher but Ash quickly charges into it and grabs the weapon. He fires it at the horde of droids, exploding several more. He fires again, and again. Ash enjoys the launcher as he doesn't have to aim very well. He pulls the trigger again but it just clicks. He tosses the launcher at the droids, knocking over two more. "Here goes nothing..." He charges at the droids and tackles one ripping off it's head. He swings it around, knocking back a few droids.

"Commandos! We're saved!" A B1 shouts out. Ash looks up to see two commandos carrying blades dive at him. He grabs a droid blaster and shoots it at one of them, missing several times, but eventually hitting it. He grabs it's blade and swings it at the other, swiftly slicing it's head off. He snatches the other blade and charges at the remaining droids, dodging blaster fire and cutting the droids down. He cuts the last one down and exhales a breath of relief.

"Thirty-two more droids down."

"Eat heat!" Sniper shouts as he snipes down the last three droids. "Wave 1 complete, only around 9 to go!"

"Great kid, don't get cocky." Scar warns.

"We'll be fine!" Sniper assures as he tosses Scar another ammo pack.

Heavyfire and Ace sit with a few other shiny's talking about their time in Kamino around a small fire when Cody and Bomber walk up to them.

"Shiny's, Bomber is taking you 9 out on a patrol mission." Cody informs as the shiny's stand at attention.

"Yes sir!" They reply and follow Bomber out of the camp.

After 2 hours of walking past nothing but trees they see a flash of white light then a mushroom cloud followed by a ear shattering "bang!"

"Sonic nuke! Climb up the trees, around 3 meters!" Bomber orders.

"Again." Heavyfire mutters to Ace who laughs.

The clones start climbing quickly with their extension cables. A branch snaps and falls on one of the clones and he falls down to the ground. He starts climbing again but it's to late. The wave passes by. Shattering the tree stumps and completely obliterating the clone to pieces. The clones exchange disgusted and mournful looks behind their helmets and the trees start to fall. The clones dodge the trees as they fall and find themselves in a newly created field of downed trees. Dozens of droid emerge from the trees. The clones are now close to the center of the clearing.

"Run for it!" Bomber orders and they race towards the trees away from the droids. The droids open fire on the clones killing two more shiny's. "New plan! Duck into the downed trees!" The shiny's listen and duck into the small cover.

"What's the plan sir?" Ace asks.

"We take 'em! Everyone place all of your detonators in this area and arm them. Once you've placed them all, get yourselves out of the blast range but stay together. Then await for further orders." Bomber orders.

"I love this plan!" Heavyfire cheers and the clones disperse, arming detonators. Crawling through the trees sucks. They constantly whip the clones with their branches as they push through. "I hope I get to detonate them." He wishes as he places his last detonator.

"Yeah, you gotta be the first one back for that. It's a house rule in the 212th." The shiny next to him informs.

"That seems fair." Heavyfire replies.

"Race ya back!" The clones shouts and starts darting away, ignoring cover and immediately getting shot down. Heavyfire rushes over to him and checks for vital signs. Dead. He hurries his way out of the blast zone where the others are waiting.

"Where's Cobalt?" One shiny asks, clearly distressed.

"He didn't make it." Heavyfire informs regretfully. The shiny gulps and takes a deep breath. Then nods. "

"Alright, let's take these tin cans!"

The droids slowly advance towards the clones position. Bomber is holding the detonator waiting for the droids to close in.

"Multi, how many droids?" Bomber asks. One shiny pulls out his binoculars and stares at the droids through them.

"I count at least 145, maybe more." Multi replies confidently.

"Then we got make those detonators count." Bomber says to the others. "Once the bombs go off open fire at the droids on the outs then work your way to the middle. If we can the droids in one bunch, this droid popper should do the trick." Bomber pulls out a singular droid popper from his bag. "On my mark..." The clones are silent, ready to pull their triggers. "3..."

"Be careful out there Ace." Heavyfire whispers.

"You're the one to be careful, I've never been hit." Ace replies proudly.

"2..."

"Don't jinx it!" Heavyfire warns.

"NOW!" Bomber shouts and the detonators go off. Blowing most of the droids into the air and into pieces. Their remaining parts rain down on top of the three dozen remaining droids. The clones open fire and suppress the edges of the remaining droids, forcing them into one bunch. Bomber tosses the popper in the center of the bunch and disables all of them.

"We did it!" One shiny cheers but also shocked and disbelieving they pulled it off.

"Celebrate later, we need to report back to Metal, the droids are closing in." Bomber orders and the clones run off into the forest towards their camp.

Scout gets thrown at another wall across the room, he groans in severe discomfort. He must've gotten a concussion because he can only see four clones in the center of the room. "Why aren't you helping me?" He asks quietly. One of the ARF troopers nods as if to tell him there was a plan, but he doesn't understand. The rancor grabs Scout's gun and snaps it in half. This gives Scout enough time to stand up and punch it with full force. "Ow!" He yelps as his fist cracks. The rancor picks him up again and then begins crushing him against the wall. "Can't... breathe..." He gasps as he pleads for the clones to help him. One clone dives from the ceiling with a metal rod and jams it straight through the rancor. It drops Scout, then falls to the ground, dead. Scout also falls to the ground, gasping for air.

"Thanks for holding him off long enough." The clone says as he offers Scout a hand.

"How did you do just disappear then reappear like that?" Scout asks once his breathing returns to normal.

"They call me Ghost for a reason."

"It's an honour to meet you sir." Scout replies, "Now come on, let's get out of here." The clones all grab droid blasters and prepare to sneak out of the ship when the door opens to reveal Ash, holding a rocket launcher. "Looks like you had a change of heart."

"Couldn't let you die. I beat the shit out of 32 droids for you man." Ash replies.

"How sweet, now come on, we gotta go." Ghost interrupts and pushes past Scout and Ash. Jets looks over at them and shrugs. They follow Ghost and the others but stay slightly behind.

"Ash, I wanted to apologize, if you hadn't went to "Old Republic Trooper" mode back there, I would've died.

"Apology accepted, just please trust me next time. Also, I wasn't even close to the power of an Old Republic Trooper." Ash jokes.

"Understood, this Ghost guy, doesn't seem too kind." Scout points out.

"Yeah it's probably because of his incident during Geonosis. He's not a bad guys, I just think he doesn't want to be left behind again." Jets intervenes.

"Incident?" Scout asks.

"Yeah, during the battle of Geonosis, he was part of the raid in one of the hives. His old squad got trapped inside and when they finally got out, the Republic had finished the battle and left them behind. They barely escaped, repairing a downed LAAT then flying back to the Republic." Jets tells the two. They ponder on the story for a little while.

"So he's just as scared as the rest of us?" Scout asks.

"The fear will never go away." Jets warns seriously. "It just gets easier to control."

Ash nods and gulps. He bites his lip a little, unsure of what to say. Luckily Scout breaks the silence.

"How'd you know, I was in trouble?" Scout asks.

"For one I watched the droids come back out of the forest, and secondly, the ship was violently shaking." Ash answers. Jets and Scout laugh. "Does Ghost know where we're going, you guys were in jail when Cody landed with the 212th?"

"Us ARF Troopers have comms inside of our helmets too. So does Ghost, but his is a private communicator linked only to the rest of the high command. Major Metal, Bomber and Scar." Jets answers.

"This is one of many reasons why I want to be an ARF Trooper Ash." Scout states.

"Look, I thought about it and yeah, you should go for an ARF position." Ash says proudly.

"And I think I know someone who might recommend you to Metal." Jets says.

"Thank you Jets." Scout replies sincerely.

"It'll take a while to be processed though so you gotta make sure you're still alive when you're supposed to get your training." Jets warns humorously. The forest flashes white for a split second and yet another mushroom cloud can be seen in the distance.

"Everyone up the trees!" Ghost orders.

The sonic wave smashes into the trees, knocking them all over. The six clones quickly get back to the ground, avoiding the falling trees. Ace helps Heavyfire up. They look around them, they can see where they had just exploded the dozens of droids. "They're making a path towards our camp, we need to make this double time to warn them otherwise, we're all screwed." Bomber orders and starts running towards the camp, the others follow, but something catches Ace's eye.

"Look! More clones!" Ace shouts. Their comms go off and the clones stop.

"This is CT-589, wait up." It says.

"That's Ghost's number, the missing members of Bomber squadron!" Heavyfire cheers, knowing that Ash and Scout had to be there. The clones meet up and most of Neon reunites.

"No time for welcomes! Let's go go go!" Bomber orders and continues running.

As they run, Neon squadron catch each other up on what's happened. Avoiding the time when Ash shot Scout.

"So where's Sniper?" Ash asks, concerned.

"We haven't found him, he went missing along with Scar during the battle at the village. However, a distress call is coming from there and we believe it to be them. Two of Cody's men, Waxer and Boil are moving in." Ace replies.

"So your new name is Fire?" Scout teases.

"No, it's not." Heavyfire says, clearly trying to be calm.

"Sure, whatever you say Fire." Ash jokes and the others laugh.

"Just keep moving." Heavyfire says, ignoring them.

They reach the camp, Bomber and Ghost rush over to Metal, Cody and Kenobi. They quickly explain everything and Kenobi jumps into the center of the camp. "Gather round men. The droids are getting close."


	9. Survival

He can't see anything. Mud is seeping through his helmet, loosened from the blast that shoved him under the mud. He tries to get out, but to no avail. He's drowning. Someone grabs him by his shoulders and yanks him up. His helmet is ripped off and he can breathe once again.

"Fire! Heavyfire! Come on! We need to go!" Ace shouts at him, still supporting him as he stands up. All the can are clones running everywhere. Explosions launching them into the mud to their deaths. Heavyfire puts his helmet back on and the two join the others to get out of range of the canons. They spot Kenobi and run towards him. Near a Jedi is the safest place for them to be.

When they reach Kenobi, a few other clones toss them ammo packs then proceed with the battle. There were no longer trees in the camp. A sonic nuke had struck before the attack, removing all forms of cover. AT-TE's open fire on the oncoming droids, trying to create cover fire for the retreating clones. They've already lost so many. Six LAAT's fly overhead and land behind the AT-TE's and outcome Anakin, Plo Koon and Ahsoka, along with dozens of blue and black armored clones. They rush in front of the 212th and Anakin rushes for Obi-Wan.

"Get as many of your troops out of here as possible!" He shouts to him. Obi-Wan nods and gives the order.

Orange armored troopers run for the LAAT's. Ace and Heavyfire rush towards the closest one. They get inside and turn around to see Scout and Ace dive into the LAAT as well. They spot Sniper carrying a stretcher and rushing towards a different LAAT. Scout points out that he's carrying Scar in the stretcher. The LAAT's take off as a canon blast launches several clones. Scout watches as it knocks Jets off his feet and into the mud where he sinks in. Without thinking, Scout jumps from the LAAT and starts helping Jets. The LAAT rises further and further away.

"Scout!" Ace cries, then jumps after him. Ash catches his arm, leaving Ace dangling from the LAAT. "Let go! I can't leave him on his own! You need to trust me Ash. Let. Go."

Ash pauses for a second. Ace struggles to break free from his grasp but Ash is much stronger. "I'm sorry brother." Ash replies and hauls Ace back inside and holds him back. "Shut the doors!" Once the doors shut, Ace stops struggling, and Ash releases him.

"I hope you can live with yourself CT-4755." Ace says angrily as he pounds his fist on the door.

"My name is Ash. _I have a name_." Ash replies.

"Not to me." Ace responds and walks to the back of the LAAT, away from Ash. Ash starts to walk up to him, but Heavyfire stops him.

"Just leave him alone for now. He needs time to realize that you saved his life and that he wouldn't have been able to help Scout." Heavyfire says calmly.

"I couldn't let Ace die too." Ash replies quietly.

"Hey, Scout will be back." Heavyfire assures. The LAAT enters space and heads for the "Resolute" "I'll fill in Sniper, you can just get some rest." Heavyfire offers.

"Thank you. For understanding." Ash replies sincerely.

"Anytime." Heavyfire says as the LAAT lands. They exit the ship and spot Sniper. "Get some sleep brother." He tells Ash, then runs up to Sniper. Ash watches Ace head down a hall that led down to the holomaps, most likely to plans fake strategies. It was what he did to occupy his mind. Ash sighs. Guilt looms over him like a dark clouds shadow. But he was in the right, right? He had saved Ace's life. Scout can probably handle himself anyway. He's resourceful. The holomaps are to the right of the hall, but Ace turns left towards the barracks, shooting range and escape pods...

"On no you don't!" Ash mutters and runs after Ace.

Ace turns to the nearest escape pod and activates it. Ash runs into the room and Ace turns to look at him. "What are you doing?! We were ordered to stay on the ship and get some rest! Don't disobey orders!" Ash urges.

"Why are you letting Scout die?!" Ash shouts back.

"You can't help him! He doesn't need help, he's got the skills to survive. If you launch this pod, you'll be court marshaled." Ash reasons but Ace still walks into the pod. Reluctantly, Ash raises his blaster.

"What?!" Ace asks outraged.

"Why does this keep happening to me?" Ash asks himself. First Scout, now Ace. "Don't make me do this." He pleads.

"I'm sorry CT-4755." Ace replies and reaches for the launch button. Ash fires a stun ray at him, and he collapses in the pod. Heavyfire runs into the room.

"I saw you follow Ace into this room from across the hangar so I ran as fast as I could to make sure everything was okay. Clearly, it is not." He explains.

"Ace was trying to get back down to the surface." Ash replies. "I stunned him."

"Let's get a stretcher and take him to the barracks while he's still stunned." Heavyfire suggests. Ash nods and leaves to grab one.

On the surface, the Republic has established a small area. The four remaining AT-TE's guard the points of entry with a squad of clones and a Jedi. In the center, the medics stay to tend to the injured that did not make it to a LAAT in time. Scout is using a downed droid bomber as cover on the south trail along with several other clones, including Jets. Ahsoka stands in front of the pilot for the AT-TE, saving him from countless shots. There's about 30 of them left, holding out on this specific trail. The droids are continuing their push, but with less effort. As if it wasn't a mandatory target. Scout can see Rex and Jesse behind one of the walker's front legs, leading the defense. Jets moves directly next to Scout.

"I've just received orders to meet with General Skywalker on the west trail along with one other clone. This could be the perfect chance for you to become an ARF!" Jets exclaims.

Without thinking, Scout replies. "Let's go!" The two clones start falling back while the others provide cover fire. Once they get out of range, they run to the west trail where Anakin and his forces are holding out. A clone notices them and signs them to come up to the front with Anakin. They run up and get behind cover.

"Welcome gentlemen!" Anakin says with gritted teeth. He's focused on deflecting several laser bolts from killing his men. "I've got a little assignment for you and a few others. The droids are going to launch their sonic nuke, directly in the center of our area. As far as we know this is the only sonic nuke canon ever made. All you must do is take it down! Jets, you're in charge of the operation"

"Yes sir." Jets replies. "How many of us will there be?"

"We were able to get one more LAAT through the planets anti-aircraft canons. They'll be picking you guys up along with two clones with the 501st and Wolf Pack. Green Company will be picking you up with Commander Barriss Offee." Skywalker explains.

"Sounds good sir!" Jets replies.

"We'll be back before you know it!" Scout adds.

"I'm counting on it! Good luck Scout!" Skywalker replies. "Now go to the center and get on that LAAT!"

The two clones rush back to the center where countless clones are lying on the ground, dead or dying. The medics are moving around quickly, trying to keep the survivors alive. Four other clones, two black, two blue, are waiting near the edge. Jets and Scout walk over to them. When they get there a clone in blue armor greets them. "Hi!" He says enthusiastically. "Are you guys also on the mission?"

"Yes." Jets replies and Scout nods.

"My name's Jolly and this is Loose." Jolly introduces himself and the other 501st clone trooper. Loose sighs and face palms. "Cheer up Loose! We're going on a stealth mission to destroy an evil super weapon!"

"Not much of a stealth mission if you shout it out." Loose grumbles.

"Right, the name's Scout." He says and shakes Jolly's hand.

"And I'm Jets, your new boss." Jets adds.

"Sir!" The blue and black clones say immediately once they hear that he's their new commanding officer for the mission.

"At ease." Jets orders. "You two from Wolf Pack. Names?"

"I'm Boost sir, and this is Hauler." The clone to the right answers.

"Nice to meet you all. We will be accompanied by members from Green Company and Commander Offee. Our objective is simple, destroy the sonic nuke canon. The LAAT will drop us off within two klicks of the canon. From there, we will head towards it by foot, avoiding contact with the droids. When we get to the canon, Scout will place the detonators while we cover him. Once he's done, the moment we're out of blast range, I will detonate the canon. The LAAT will once again be waiting for us in the same place we were dropped off. Scout, here's the map, I want you to memorize it. Understood?" Jets explains and tosses Scout a chip.

"Sir yes sir!" The five reply just as the LAAT lands next to them. The doors open, revealing green armored clone troopers and Commander Offee. The six walk into the LAAT and it takes off. The doors close and Barriss walks to the center of the LAAT.

"I assume Jets as already briefed you on the mission?" She asks once she has the clone's attention. The clones nod. "Remember, stay together. This canon will be heavily fortified and we're going to need everyone to destroy it. Scout, you're bag of detonators is in the back." Scout nods again and walks to the back and straps on his bag. "Once the canon is destroyed, we will meet back at the drop point and the LAAT will take us off this planet. The droids will leave once we take out the canon. Once the canon is down, our remaining forces can take out the anti-aircraft guns and we can get off Endor."

"Expect several defense mechanisms and traps. Be careful!" Jets reminds. The LAAT starts lowering and the doors open. "Use your extension cables to get to the ground." Jets hooks his onto part of the LAAT and lowers himself down. Others follow him while the commander jumps from the LAAT and lands safely on the ground. Once the clones reach the ground, they detach their cables and follow Barriss and Jets towards the canon.

They quickly jog to the canon and soon reach the strong hold. "Mug, Kiu, get that door open. The canon is in the center of this facility." Jets explains. The two green clones get to the door and start prying it open. After a few attempts, the steel gives way and the team walks in. It's pitch black, all the clones turn on their flashlights and follow Jets through the narrow tunnel. Eventually they reach an opening. It's massive and the floor is separated by a grid of tiles with several holes in them. Potentially hiding something. Jets stops before the first tile. "What do you think Commander?" He asks.

"I think we need to watch our step, follow my path exactly." She replies and sticks her arm out in front of her. She's quiet and focused, she closes her eyes and begins to walk across the room. They hear a cannon fire. It strikes the ground near the strong hold, shaking the ground. The room shakes and one green clone slips and falls onto the wrong tile. Spikes immediately sprang from the tile, impaling the clone. An alarm goes off.

"Well, they know we're here!" Jets warns. They pick up the pace through the room, but droids close in on them, stopping at both doorways. A male Phindian walks onto one of the tiles with a squad of droids covering him.

"Moralo Eval!" Barriss shouts, recognizing the C.I.S. leader. She ignites her lightsaber, waiting for Eval's reply.

"Barriss! What a pleasure to see you again!" He hisses with his raspy voice. "Do you like my new abode?"

"You're going to pay for what you've done, you murdering slime ball." She replies with anger in her voice.

"This is my greeting party. Enjoy their, hospitality..." Eval teases and walks away as the droids open fire on the clones. They shoot back, trying to avoid slipping while they dodge the blaster shots.

"Follow me!" Barriss orders, then cuts up the floor tiles and runs to the other side of the room. She throws her lightsaber at the droid squad in that doorway. Then, she jumps over the clones and begins deflecting the other squads' shots. Two clones got shot, but the others survive and get out of the room. The last droid falls to the ground and the team rushes down the hall. Jets and Barriss take the lead.

"I recommend we split up. Let me take my task force and we'll take out the canon, you go after Eval, he must be captured." Jets suggests.

"Agreed, meet us at the drop zone after you've completed your objective." Barriss orders.

"Understood. Squad, on me!" Jets orders. The six clones continue down the hall, while the others follow Barriss to pursue Moralo Eval. They reach an intersection and they stop. "Scout, I thought you said there were no intersections?" Jets asks him.

"There weren't any one the map." Scout insists.

"This is fun! We have to stray from the plan!" Jolly pipes in.

"Will you please shut up!? This a serious situation!" Loose pleads and Jolly quiets up.

"Sorry." He replies sincerely.

"What if the map was only showing you the route to the canon and nothing else. Eval would want to deceive us." Boost points out.

"Even so, the map said go straight forward, we can only go left or right." Scout reminds.

"Not exactly..." Boost replies and points up to a vent.

Ace wakes up in a daze. The rest of Neon (aside from Scout) stand around him. They all have concerned looks on their faces. Ace sits up and rubs his head.

"Are you insane?! Disobeying orders?!" Sniper says first.

"Oh great! You're gonna let Scout die too?!" Ace shouts still upset.

"Listen, Scout is going to be find. He can take care of himself. Plus, there's several Jedi and highly trained clones down there." Heavyfire reasons.

"But what if it's not enough?" Ace insists.

"And one shiny is gonna make that better? This has only been our fifth mission, we have next to no experience compared to these other clones." Sniper asks.

"I guess not..." Ace starts. "But we should still try!"

"Seriously Ace?" Sniper sighs. Ace charges at him and he falls over. He smacks his head off a bunk and passes out.

"You're next..."

Sniper wakes up a couple minutes later with his squad around him. "I... Ash, I heard the words again." He spits out. Ash nods and leaves to find a medic. The last time they tried to get help, something stopped them from saying what Sniper saw or heard. The medics assumed it was some sort of trauma but didn't understand why they couldn't say the words.

"What words?" Heavyfire asks.

"I can't tell you. I don't know why, but I can't." Sniper explains.

"That doesn't make _any_ sense." Ace replies. "I'm sorry I pushed you. I don't know what went through me. Scout's probably the best of all of us at surviving in these situations."

"Apology accepted. I'll try to tell you what the voice said." Sniper says as he takes a deep centering breath. Ace and Heavyfire wait with great interest. "They said..."

"You cannot tell them." The voice intervenes in his mind.

"You can't make me!" Sniper shoots back but he starts tensing up and violently shaking.

"Yes..." The voice hisses again. "I can." Intense pain fires throughout Sniper's body and he screams in pain. Ash and the medic rush in. The medic immediately injects Sniper with a sleeping needle. Sniper stops shaking and relaxes.

"We need to get him to the medical bay." The medic informs. Heavyfire and Ash grab a stretcher and put Sniper onto it. They rush to the medical bay with Ace right behind them.

"I really like the amount of space in this vent." Boost mutters as the vent gets smaller and smaller.

"Well then sorry about this, but we're here." Jets informs quietly. He opens the vent carefully and the crawl out into a large roofless room with a giant canon in the center. They stay near the walls, out of site.

"There has to be at least 100 droids out there!" Hauler whispers.

"We won't be able to buy you a lot of time Scout. You must be quick." Jets reminds. Scout nods and starts sneaking towards the canon. Behind him, blasters fire and droids start shouting. Scout rushes up to the canon, still out of site. He starts placing detonators around the canon, but a droid spots him before he can finish.

"Hey y-" It starts but Scout shoots it. Other droids start firing at him. He uses a canon leg as cover until a droid shoots one of the detonators and it explodes his cover. As the blast goes off, Scout ditches his other detonators and they all explode. Scout barely makes it out of the way. The canon falls over but remains functional.

"Time to get creative!" Jets shouts over to him. Scout thinks for a second while a super battle droid with a canon arm fires at him, exploding the nearby ground. Scout gets an idea and stands in front of the canon. The droid fires again and Scouts runs away. The rocket hits the canon and it explodes. He quickly jumps onto the top and grabs the plans for the tank then signals the others. "Let's get out of here!" Jets shouts and the clones fall back to the vent. They crawl into the vent one by one with Jets in the front and Hauler in the back. They rush through the vent, but droids climb in after them and fire down the vent.

"Hauler!" Boost cries as his friend is shot repeatedly. His body becomes a slight shield as the clones exit the vent and continue to run. The droids closely follow them while they fire. The five clones get outside but a shot hits Jolly before they're out of range.

"Jolly, no!" Loose cries and picks him up, then continues to run. They get around a corner and stop for a moment. Loose lowers Jolly to the ground. "I'm sorry." Loose tells him.

"Nah, I was annoying sometimes." Jolly says quietly, struggling to breathe.

"We were gonna win the Republic this war, it's been our plan since we could talk." Loose reminds, as if trying to convince Jolly to stay alive.

"Go, I hold them off as long as I can, I'm dying anyway..." Jolly trails off and goes limp.

"Jolly? Jolly wake up!" Loose pleads as he hugs his brother tightly. "Jolly, come on!" Jets walks up to him.

"He's dead, we need to go." Jets insists.

"No!" Loose replies and grips Jolly tighter. "I won't leave him!"

"Then you're going to die too." Jets warns.

"I'll hold them off." Jolly replies. Jets nods and motions for the other two to follow him.

"Good luck Loose." Scout wishes as he runs off, behind Jets and Boost. Loose loads his weapon and the droids come around the corner. He shoots them all down quickly and another wave replaces them. He continues to wipe out droids until he runs out of ammo. He uses his remaining detonators to kill of the last wave. Another, close behind. A blaster shot hits him in the gut. He falls to the ground next to Jolly. Another shot hits him and he gives his last few breaths.

"I'm coming Jolly."

"All clones prepare to back down to the surface! The anti-aircraft canons are about to be disabled! I repeat, all clones to the hangar, we are going back to the surface!" An intercom reports throughout the ship. The four members of Neon squadron run down to the hangar as fast as they can and get inside of the first LAAT. A few other clones are already in there. Two of them in blue armor walk up to them.

"Good to see you guys are still alive." One of them says.

"Trick? Charger? It's great to see you!" Ace replies and the clones reintroduce themselves.

"We went down to Ryloth while you guys were on Umbara." Charger informs. "I our new squad out of a pretty bad situation."

"That _you_ put us in." Trick reminds.

"Yeah, whatever." Charger replies, ignoring Trick.

"I heard that you guys had to deal with the flood virus?!" Trick asks, in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's hopefully been eradicated from this galaxy." Ash jokes.

"It was nothing the 648th couldn't handle!" Heavyfire brags.

"If you like them so much, you should apply to join them, instead of the 501st." Sniper jokes.

"Very funny." Heavyfire replies as the LAAT doors close and prepare to take off.

They reach the drop zone where the LAAT is waiting, along with Commander Offee and seven members of Green Company. No Eval. They board the LAAT without a word said and it takes off. It lands back in the Republic controlled area, Jets and Barriss quickly report to the ships waiting to send down the LAAT's. Not long after, the LAAT's fly in overhead and Green, Blue, Orange and Black armored clones rush onto the scene, dividing down the trails by legion to push the droids back. Scout and Jets say good-bye to Boost and rush down with the other 212th clones to aid General Kenobi.

Heavyfire rushes down the trail with Bomber by his side. "Ready to clear out the droids Fire?" Bomber asks him as they rush to the front of the group with Z-6's.

"Definitely! Let's knock down these clankers!" Heavyfire cheers. All the heavy's reach the front line and spray bolts everywhere, obliterating the droids. The remaining droid tanks fire at the line of heavy's, which significantly stops the rain of blaster fire. Heavyfire dodges the blasts but Bomber isn't so lucky. Heavyfire rushes down to him.

"Heavyfire..." Bomber mumbles.

"I thought my name was 'Fire?" Heavyfire replies.

"Heavyfire, blast those clankers to the sky..." Bomber goes limp and Heavyfire nods. He picks up his Z-6, and Bomber's, then opens fire. He targets the tanks with concentrated fire on the canons. one by one, he disables all the tanks canons and the clones destroy them. They watch as droid transports take off, back to their cruisers. The battle is won.

The four clones find each other and search for Scout. Scout finds them first though and sneaks up behind them. Scaring them all. "Scout!" Ace cheers.

"You sound surprised." Scout jokes.

"Oh, do we ever have a story to tell you." Ash replies.

"Chances are mine is better." Scout bets.

As they talk about their experiences, Trick and Charger join in. They board the LAAT and it flies back to their cruiser where Rex is waiting… They walk up to them and stand at attention.

"Neon squadron, welcome to the 501st."

 **This one took a while to write just because school is getting a little hectic, I'm involved with a lot of extra curricular activities so finding time for this story is hard. Posts may be a little further apart, but I MUST REMIND EVERYONE THAT THIS STORY IS NOT ABANDONED! I love writing this story. I'm having a lot of fun with this and it's only the beginning! I have a lot planned for this story, but I still enjoy input! Please comment! Tell me what your favourite parts of the chapters are, who's your favourite character? Least favourite? I'd love to hear from you guys, if you have any oc clones that you'd like to see in the story, please let me know! I'll see what I can do. Just leave their name, legion, and personality. Thanks in advance, have a great day!**


	10. Giga Squadron

Their paint had arrived for their new armor just over 50 rotations ago. Each of them followed the normal template with a few extra designs. Heavyfire added the design of Bomber's helmet on his right shoulder plate, and Brightside's on the left. Scout had painted his shin armor to match the scorch marks on his old armor. Ace added a target on his forehead with the bulls' eye being where the old bullet mark had been. Ash turned his shoulder plates into blue flames and put a tally count on his forearm. Not for kills, however. For close friends that he had lost. The three members of Xerox squadron, Sunshine, Brightside, Screecher and Bomber. Sniper painted the part of his helmet that had shattered on Endor and image of a scope on both shoulder blades.

They had caught up with Trick and Charger, the seven of them, along with Fives and Echo had been assigned to Giga Squadron. Giga squadron had recently been decimated and required new clones to rebuild it. Neon, Xerox and Domino squad had merge together as one to fill Giga. Fives leads the Giga squadron, with Ace as his second in command. Now, after a relief mission on Ryloth, Giga and Cutter squadrons were on the way home, in a small transport.

"Another unexpected droid ambush. It's like we're droid magnets." Echo complains as he washes a scorch mark off of his armor.

"I don't mind!" Ash laughs as he sits down in one of the chairs in their cockpit and spins it around.

Cutter squadron was on free time while Giga mans the ship. Ash, Echo, Charger and Scout stay in the cockpit, while the others are stationed by the canons.

"Another very successful mission in the bag! None of us even got hurt!" Charger exclaims.

"Speak for yourself, our technique was reckless and there were lots of opportunities for error. Scout reminds.

"I'll remind you that earlier this year, I literally had to shoot you out of a tree." Ash reminds and the others laugh.

"Yeah but I'm a new man now." Scout states.

"Only because he nearly got eaten by that Sarlacc when we were negotiating with Jabba the Hutt!" Echo teases playfully.

"And the time he got trapped the Rancor pit!" Charger adds as they laugh.

"Or even the time..." Ash is about to make another joke, but Scout intervenes.

" _Do not_ bring up the Acklay story." Scout insists.

"The one where you tried to jump on it and it threw you off." Ash asks.

"Then tried to stab you with it's claws." Charger adds.

"Guys!" Scout complains. Two circular ships exit hyperspace, still rotating. The clones stare at them, the ships open fire and the transport shake.

"Shields and scanners down!" Charger reports from his station.

"Contact them!" Scout orders. Charger pushes a few buttons and Hondo Ohnaka appears on the screen. "This is a Republic transport! We are just trying to get back home! Please pull off your attack!"

Hondo laughs. "I am so sorry my friend! Most transports in this system have already been pirated and other pirates pilot them. I merely thought you were not really a Republic transport!"

"Next time, maybe you should talk first. Our hyper drive has been severely damaged. We're dead in the water." Scout explains.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. It'll be a surprise." Hondo teases.

"Yeah, yeah. We're completely screwed now!" Scout shouts.

"Then by all means, let me protect you, your supplies will attract many pirates. Free of charge!" Hondo proposes.

"Thank you, we'll update you when we're done." Scout replies. Hondo nods and disconnects.

On board the pirate flagship, Hondo chuckles and contacts Count Dooku. He appears in a hologram. "Dooku my friend!"

"Hondo. Have you found the transport?" Dooku asks.

"Of course, I have." Hondo replies.

"Remember, I want CT-27-4759 alive. I've been informed that his name is Sniper." Dooku reminds.

"I am aware Count!" Hondo says as he paces around. "I will get him to you. But I do not understand why you need that clone trooper."

"There is something different about him. I have foreseen that he will become a great threat if not dealt with in the right hands." Dooku replies calmly.

"Very interesting... You will not forget our deal, yes?" Hondo asks.

"Of course. I will follow through, this mission is too important for me to betray you Hondo." Dooku answers.

"Good, good! Ha, ha, ha! I will contact you when I have the clone." Hondo replies and disconnects. "Send out my assassins. Remember, silent, but deadly..."

Five pirates in space suits are ejected into space. They float down with jet packs onto the transports and sneak inside. They place detonators on the airlock, then they crawl into one of the hallways and head towards the barracks where they find all of Cutter squadron, asleep. The pirates throw gas bombs into the barracks then shut the door as they spray green gas throughout the room.

"Night, night." One pirate chuckles with sinister intent. The clones inside squirm with pain after a few minutes as the gas leaks into their airways. A few wake up, coughing for clear air. Two clones roll over onto the floor, barely breathing.

"Well, Koho, this is the end." One says to the other.

"Denal, don't give up! We can find a way out of this!" Koho insists.

"The vents! Everyone! Get to the vents!" Denal orders, but his brothers can no longer move. Since gas rises, it's hurt them quicker. One clone falls off of his bunk and rolls next to them. His eyes are lifeless and his skin has turned pale green with decay. Denal and Koho rush into the vents and seal it off. The last of the gas in the vents filters out and the two clones can breathe normally again.

"Well now what?" Koho asks.

"We need to warn Giga squadron, and find some armor. We've left our armor and guns in there and we can't go back." Denal reminds.

"Then I guess we have to go to the armory." Koho suggests and the two crawl through the vents at a quickened pace.

Fives and Trick walk the halls near the airlock, searching for the supplies to fix the hyper drive. They hear a shuffle come from down the hall. Fives signals Trick to split up and surround the noise. He nods and Fives walks down the left hall with his weapon ready. As he walks down the hall, two pirates jump from the ceiling, attacking Fives. he quickly shoots one of them, but the other tackles him and puts a knife to his throat. The pirate struggles, trying to slit Fives' throat, but Fives catches the pirate's wrist and twist it. The pirate yelps in pain. Fives pushes the pirate up and stands up himself. He dives for his gun and shoots down the other pirate.

Trick hears blaster fire from Fives' hall and runs to assist but, three pirates ambush him. They quickly pin down the unsuspecting clone, and one of them pulls out a knife. Luckily for Trick, Fives comes running down the hall and shoots down the three pirates. Supposedly killing them. He helps Trick up.

"We need to warn the others." Fives urgently says as the singular surviving pirate crawls to a detonator trigger on the floor without the clones noticing.

"You'll be doing no such thing." The pirate says as he grabs the trigger and explodes the airlock door. The dead pirates are sucked out into space, while Fives, Trick and the pirate grip to the walls. They hold on tightly as the vacuum of space tries to launch them out of the transport. Fives grabs onto the vent next to him and hauls it open. He pulls himself inside and Trick follows, closing the vent door behind him. They're both sucked towards the vent door and can't move, but at least they're alive. Fives activates his comm.

"The airlock has been breached! Close off all air to this sector!" Fives orders.

"Won't we suffocate?" Trick asks.

"Our helmets will keep us safe for a short period of time. We'll use that to get to safety." Fives explains quickly. "Communications have been cut! They didn't hear me."

The room re-pressurizes, someone sealed the breach.

"Then who sealed the airlock..." Trick whispers as they turn around to see dozens of pirates, along with Hondo.

"Raid this ship! Capture Sniper! This should be easy, only nine clones remain!" Hondo orders.

"Yes sir!" They reply, and they all leave the room.

"They must've killed everyone in Cutter squadron!" Trick whispers, horrified.

"Why do they want Sniper?" Fives asks.

"We need to find the others and warn them without producing any electricity. Anything could pick up on their scanners. We don't know." Trick warns.

"Then come on, let's go to the engine room." Fives motions, and the two crawl through the vent, to find Sniper.

In the engine room, Ace, Fire and Sniper are trying to repair the hyper drive when they hear shuffling outside of the door. The clones stop their work.

"Fives? Trick?" Ace calls out. No reply. The clones hear a voice that is definitely not a clones. They hide in a vent and watch as two dozen pirates walk into the room. Ace signals the other two to follow him. He leads them towards the escape pods. They reach the room and wait there for signs from the others.

"Why would they attack us?!" Sniper asks.

"They must be after something we have." Fire suggests.

"But what? We carry nothing of great value." Sniper reminds.

"Maybe they're after someone..." Ace suggests.

"But that wouldn't make any sense! There are only clones on this transport. What could they possibly want with a clone?" Fire asks.

"I don't know, but we need to be ready for an evacuation." Ace replies.

"Won't the pirates just shoot the escape pods?" Sniper asks.

"Not if we have valuables in our pod..." Fire realizes.

"One of us needs to go get all the credits they can take. I'm sure the pirates wouldn't want to hurt a bonus profit." Ace says.

"I'll do it." Sniper offers. "You guys keep this room secure." The others nod and Sniper crawls back into the vent.

"Sniper." Ace calls out. Sniper looks back at him and Fire. "Good luck."

Ash, Echo, Scout and Charger continue trying to fix the ship from the cockpit.

"There they are!" A pirate shouts with his raspy voice. Without even looking, Echo quickly shoots him down, but more follow. The clones dive for cover and enter a stalemate with the pirates.

"Got any ideas?" Echo shouts over to Scout and Ash."

"Hold them here until help arrives?" Scout suggests.

"If help is coming, the pirates have gotten this far!" Ash replies pessimistically.

"I'm in for Scout's plan until we think of something better!" Charger shouts over the blaster fire.

"Well then, keep shooting!" Scout orders.

Sniper finds the safe and cracks it open. Then he fills a bag full of credits. Three pirates enter the room and shoot Sniper's weapon out of his hand. He tries to block his face with his hands. "You're next." Rings in his ears.

"NO!" He shouts and a force shoots powerfully out of his hands and the pirates go flying. They collapse on the ground, struggling to move. Sniper looks at his own hands with complete shock. "What did I do?" He asks himself but, he remembers the task at hand and crawls back into the vent with a full bag of credits.

When he reaches Ace and Fire, they load the credits into a pod.

"We overheard some pirates talking. They've pinned down four clones in the cockpit. Everyone else..." Ace chokes for a moment. "Is dead." Sniper staggers for a second then looks up at Fire.

"We also learned why they're here." He starts. "They're after you."

"B-but, that doesn't, it doesn't make sense!" Sniper sputters. "I haven't done anything special!"

"We don't know why they're after you, but they are. We're evacuating." Ace reports.

"But we can't just leave the others!" Sniper objects.

"We won't be. We're going to board one of the pirate ships and take hostages, that way we can negotiate the safe return of the survivors." Ace assures.

"Come on! Quickly!" Fire urges the other two into the pod just as a ceiling vent starts to rattle. The two clones rush into the pod and point their guns at the vent. The vent door swings open and Denal and Koho fall out onto the floor. They're wearing shiny armor and they're struggling to move. Sniper and Fire help them into the pod. They all strap into the seats and the pod ejects.

"What happened to you two?" Ace asks.

"We, we were in the barracks when the pirates gassed the room. We're the only survivors, but the gas has weakened us. We're in shiny armor because we left our old gear in the barracks." Denal weakly spiels out.

"No word from Trick or Fives?" Fire asks hopefully.

"I'm sorry." Koho replies, also very weak.

"I'd assume you two both know what we're about to do?" Ace asks. The two clones nod and the escape pod gets pulled into one of the pirate ships by a tractor beam. Once it lands, the clones open fire on the pirates on board. They stun the pirates, then cuff them to the pod.

"Fire, life signs?" Ace asks and Fire walks into the pod and checks.

"Eight on the bridge, the others must be on the transport." Fire replies.

"Let's go. Sniper, you stay here and keep Koho and Denal alive." Ace orders, then runs off with Fire.

"Get this door shut!" Echo shout to Ash. (The closest person to the door controls.) Ash dives for the controls and presses them so that the doors start to close. He falls back into cover. At the last second a pirate throws a gas bomb into the cockpit. He's shot right after that. The door seals as gas sprays throughout the room from the bomb. Ash shoot the glass blocking them from space.

"Are you crazy!?" Scout shouts. The gas hasn't breached their helmets yet.

"We have a better chance out there, then in here!" Ash shouts back and shoot the glass again. Scout sighs but he, and the others join in until the glass shatters. The clones get sucked out into space, relying on the filters in their helmets to keep them alive.

Sniper watches from the shuttle bay as four clones eject into space. They're still flailing, so they're alive. He rushes to a pirate transport and pushes a few buttons. It takes off thankfully and he pilots it towards the clones. He opens the hatch door and the four clones fire their extension cable to the door and pull themselves inside. Sniper closes the door and the air returns to the room. He flies back and lands in the bay where Ace and Fire are waiting with the other pirate prisoners. The five clones walk out of the ship.

"Where's Trick and Fives?" Charger asks quickly.

"They, didn't make it." Ace replies sadly and lowers his head.

"No!" Charger cries frantically and starts pushing buttons on his comm.

"What are you doing?" Echo asks, worried for his friend's wellbeing, but also fighting back his own emotions due to the loss of Fives.

"Plo Koon gave me and Trick some technology that allows us to talk to each other, no matter how far away, using a series of beeps." Charger replies.

"I'm sorry, but it's no use. They're dead." Scout says and pats Charger's shoulder.

"No, look!" Charger replies happily as his comm starts beeping. "We're alive... in the ship... be at pirate ship in a bit... trying to stop pirate... from acquiring strategy plans." Charger reads from his comm.

"Then we wait here until we have Trick and Fives back. Charger, keep in contact with Trick. Alert me if he speaks again. Ash, Echo, get Denal and Koho to a medical bay. The rest of us will take the prisoners to the bridge and take control there." Ace orders.

"Yes sir!" They reply, then rush off to finish their orders.

Fives deletes every file on the transport while Trick stands guard. When he finishes he opens the vent grate.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." He says to Trick and they pull themselves up into the vent. Trick's wrist comm starts beeping very quietly, to prevent the pirates from finding them.

"What's the plan?" Fives asks Trick, expecting Charger's report.

"Charger has told me to launch two escape pods. We need to be in the second one. Trick explains quickly as they continue through the vent.

"Why two pods?" Fives asks.

"Because the first pod will be needed to distract the pirates while Echo catches us with a tractor beam." Trick clarifies.

"Understood." Fives replies.

"Wait!" Trick stops crawling, so does Fives.

"Is the plan changing?" Fives asks.

"I'm getting a faint life signal from the barracks!" Trick reports.

"Another survivor?" Fives wonders.

"I can't tell, but the room was gassed." Trick reminds. "Why would a pirate be in there?"

"Tell the others we'll be a bit longer." Fives orders. They turn around and crawl toward the barracks.

When they get to the barracks, the room is clear from gas. It's either been filtered out, or it's inside all of the dead clones' lungs. They walk inside.

The sight is horrible. Rotted green skin peels from the bones that once were fresh. Now those bones decay into black rotting rocks, slowly disintegrating. What were once muscles, were now giant red bulbs that oozed a greenish yellow liquid and appeared to be, breathing. The clothing they had worn is leaking with the same liquid onto the bunks and dripping onto the floor. But that wasn't even the scariest part. Their brains lay exposed through the cracks in the skull. It's dark red, almost black, and it had expanded to the point where it had exploded. Now the remnants of the brain seep out of the eye sockets, mouth ears and nostrils of the poor victim. What was left on their faces, are expressions of pure horror and suffering.

They find the survivor, sprawled on the ground in the corner. They have their helmet on their head, which is what must've saved him. The only skin visible is his hands. They were pale green, nut not as green as the other victims. Trick notices that the clone has lost all of his finger nails. His muscles had expanded, but not nearly as much as the others and they weren't "breathing". It also appears he has no cuts or breakages in his skin. He just may recover. However, the clone is shaking and his breathing isn't consistent. Fives kneels next to him.

"Brother. Can you hear me?" Fives asks calmly. The clone nods and continues shaking. "We're going to get you out of here. What is your name?"

The clone gasps for air and Fives removes the clone's helmet. He immediately starts breathing better, and the shaking starts to stop. Gas floats out of the helmet and Trick waves it away. The clone's face is very pale, but not green.

"Lock." He replies weakly.

"Lock, we need to get to the escape pods. Is it possible for you to stand if I help you?" Fives asks, still very calm. Even though inside of his helmet, his face shows nothing but horror towards the clone's condition.

"I think so." He says, a little stronger.

Fives helps him up and supports him as he tries to walk. Lock takes little steps at first, then starts taking weak, but normal strides. When they walk into the middle of the room, Trick notices one of the muscle bulbs grow again. It reaches about half a meter wide and about that tall as well. Then it breaks off the corpse and begins crawling towards the clones. Trick shoots it twice and it explodes, spreading the yellowish green goo all over the ground around it.

"Hurry!" Trick shouts and Fives picks up Lock. They run to the vent grate and Fives gets in first, then Lock. Just as Trick is pulling himself into the vent. A pirate spots him and shouts out to his partners. They open the door as Trick closes the vent and they run after the clones. But, as they reach the middle of the room, a dozen more muscles break off their corpses and attack the pirates. Slowly, more and more muscles break off and attack the pirates. They surround one pirate and completely cover him. When they get off him, there's nothing but black rotted bones. The clones go as fast as Lock can down the vent. The screams of the pirates echo down the vents until there are no more. After about ten minutes, Lock stops.

"I-I just need a little break." He says, out of breath. Fives nods and the three listen as pirates walk past.

"Clones have taken "The Charter" we're to open fire on the ship once the shields are disabled. The auto-disable will affect the other ship as well, so we'll need to provide a lot of cover fire." One pirate reports.

"This mission just keeps getting weirder and weirder." The other states. "First we get hired by Dooku to capture a clone trooper. Even though we have a jaded history, and why would he want to capture this specific clone? Now we also have to fire on our own ship?! Are these Hondo's orders?"

"Why would Dooku want to capture Sniper?" Fives whispers to Trick.

"I don't know. But what I do know is we have to stop the pirates from shooting down the others. Trick whispers back as the pirates leave.

"Got a plan?" Fives asks.

"Yeah actually. You take Lock to the escape pods and follow the original plan. The pirates know that we're here. But they don't know that Lock is here. So, when they pick up two life signs in the escape pod, they'll think all the clones have evacuated. They won't know that I'm still on board. From there, I'll head to the auxiliary controls and initiate a self-destruct then escape on the next escape pod." Trick explains.

"I like it for the most part. I just think that I should initiate the self-destruct. I'm in command. It should be my risk." Fives insists.

"I know this ship almost better than anyone. I don't think you could do it right and then you'd blow yourself up. Sir, I'm doing it." Trick replies.

Fives sighs. "If you die, I will replace you with a shiny named "Cuddles." He threatens, then starts leading Lock to the escape pods.

"Message received." Trick jokes back and crawls towards the auxiliary controls.

Trick reaches the auxiliary control room where four pirates are standing at panels. He sneaks around them, shooting down all four. He rushes to a control panel and presses a few buttons. It flashes red, declining his request. He tries again, and again. He tries a few more buttons. Nothing works, the self-destruct won't work.

"Two pods have launched." He reads aloud. He waits a few seconds for Echo to catch them in the tractor beam, then pushes a few different buttons and he connects to the audio in Fives' escape pod.

"Fives, I'm talking to you through a one way communication link. I cannot hear you. I'm here to tell you that I won't be making it back to Giga squadron. The self destruct won't work, so I'm doing the only other thing to save the others: I'm crashing this ship into the other. Tell Charger it wasn't his fault that the rest of Xerox squadron died. There's nothing he could've done. I need you to help him get through my death. The other's deaths hit him hard. I'd like to imagine I'll also be missed. Please, keep him alive. Live to fight another day Fives, live to fight another day."

Fives pounds his fist against the wall in anger. He can't do anything else. The others have him trapped in a tractor beam. He watches helplessly as the transport collides with the other pirate ship, exploding both. Four other escape pods launched. Fives listens to the intercom, only to hear pirates voices. Trick went down with the ship. Fives lands in the bay, where the others are waiting for him and Trick to emerge from the pod. The door opens and he helps Lock out of the pod.

"Where's Trick?" Charger asks, once again.

"He didn't make it." Fives starts. "He crashed the transport into the pirate ship. No one, could survive that."

"Wha-no!" Charger cries. "He can't be dead!" He pushes a few buttons on his comm, no reply. They're all silent for a moment, then Scout points out something.

"Small flaming debris incoming!" He warns and they all run out of the way. The debris falls in through the bay, revealing Trick, with a very broken jet pack. He flies around, releasing the jet pack just before it explodes. The others run up to him. He's laying down on the ground, breathing heavily. "Trick!" Charger cheers.

"How'd you survive?!" Fives asks in disbelief.

"I set the transport to auto pilot into the ship. Then I looked behind me and saw a dead pirate with a jet pack. I must've killed him during my raid on the control room. I equipped his jet pack and then ejected myself into space and now I'm here." Trick explains.

"Come on. Let's get you to the medical bay." Ace suggests. "Echo, get us out of here."

The ship enters hyperspace, to go back home.

Another pirate ship exits hyperspace and picks up the surviving pirates as a second ship also exits. The pirates watch the Geonosian ship dock onto their ship.

"I want every available man on that door! We cannot let him in after such a failure!" Hondo orders his men. The pirates obey and seal the door then get to cover, guns at the ready. They see a figure in a hooded cloak through the translucent glass, then a red lightsaber cut through the door. The pirates wait slowly as the blade finishes. The door falls and the pirates open fire. Count Dooku swiftly deflects their lasers, then shoots lightning from his finger tips. Killing several pirates. He cuts through more and more of them with one hand, while choking out many others with the force in his other hand. The last pirate falls apart into five pieces and then Dooku runs to the shuttle bay, before Hondo could get away. By the time he reaches the bay however, a small pirate shuttle exits the ship and enters hyperspace.

 **This chapter came out way quicker, mainly because I wanted to thank all of the people that have stayed with the story. I sincerely love having so many people enjoy my story, I'm glad that people like it! I love it when people comment especially, because then I can understand how someone sees the story on the outside looking in. It really helps so, please drop in a comment, let me know what you guys think! Thank you all again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	11. Breathe Deep

"Welcome to 'The Game'. The goal, eliminate the other team" A creaky voice announces. There's four floating towers connected by a cross bridge in the center and another set of bridges individually connecting the towers.

A tower falls, taking many lives with it. There's only 34 clones left. "Top side! Stay to together!" Rex orders and they charge, leaving five behind to defend.

After a failed assault, they fall back with only nine survivors when they rejoin the defense. Another tower falls, leaving just them and the last team. That team is winning.

There's a sniper in their tower. They didn't notice it when it fired. Rex lay limp on the ground, dead.

Sniper wakes up in a daze. He sees the blur of the others through his helmet. They're in the barracks and the rest of Giga squadron are playing Sabacc with the exception of Trick. He's still in the medical bay, recovering with the survivors of Cutter squadron.

'The Resolute' had picked them up just a few hours ago and they were now, back on route to Coruscant for their next mission. All they need to do now is pick up Rex, Ahsoka and Skywalker. They had left to go find R2 and take down a Separatist listening post.

"How was your nap?" Scout teases as Sniper sits up.

"Great actually. Losing at Sabacc again I see." Sniper shoots back and the other crack a chuckle. Before Scout has the chance to answer, the intercom voice speaks.

"Warning! Warning! Droids have invaded the ship! This is a drill.! Move to intercept at the hangar bay!"

"The clones clones get their gear and rush down to the hangar where they see hoards of grey simulation droids pushing back the clone defense. The eight open fire, but it's not much use, there's way to many of them this time. Jesse and Hardcase lead the defense, doing what they can to keep the droids back. Everyone is either her in the hangar, or just waking up and rushing down.

"Their must be a full battalion!" Ash shouts to Sniper.

"This'll be fun to clean up." Sniper jokes.

"Just don't get shot and you won't have to worry about it!" Ash advises.

"Hey! Less talking, more-" Fire is cut off when he gets shot by one of the simulation droids. He falls to the ground.

"Man down!" Ash shouts and checks for Fire's vital signs. He's 'dead'.

"Fall back!" Jesse orders. The survivors hurry out of the hangar and into the hall.

"Giga squadron, protect the med-bay!" Hardcase orders. They nod and Fives leads them down the hall to the med-bay. Once inside, they supply the wounded with blasters.

"Scout, Ash, keep look out." Fives orders and the two run out into the hall and keep an eye out for the droids.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Ash says.

"So long as we stay alive, we don't have to clean up the mess." Scout reminds.

Commando droids round the corner and jump at them, 'killing' Scout. Ash grabs one of the droids vibro-swords and slashes away the droids. He eventually defeats the last one. "Looks like you'll be cleaning up the mess without me." Ash teases Scout, but is immediately shot when a hoard of droids round the corner and spot him.

They hear Ash hit the ground from inside the medical bay, and they prepare for combat. The door opens and droids march in. The clones open fire on them down quickly and swiftly, but more replace them.

"One day, Scout and Ash will take these simulations seriously!" Sniper mutters from behind a bed. The droids push further, 'killing' Charger and Echo, along with all the wounded. Fives kicks open a vent and Sniper groans.

"Come on! Let's go!" Fives orders.

"Is it really worth it? It's just a simulation." Sniper asks. Dreading the thought of crawling through another vent.

"You're the one who wants more clones to take this seriously." Ace reminds. Sniper sighs, knowing that Ace was right. He reluctantly follows the others into the vent and seals it behind him. They crawl back towards the hall where Jesse and Hardcase are holding back the droids with the remaining survivors. They burst out of the vent and join the others in the defense.

"Droids pushed us out of the medical bay. Myself, Sniper and Ace are all that remain. Fives reports to Jesse.

"Understood, it's not looking like we're going to win this battle. _Again_." Jesse replies with frustration. They hadn't won a single simulation since Rex, Ahsoka and General Skywalker left on their mission.

There's only eight of them left, they drop their guns and surrender. The droids deactivate and the 'dead' clones get back up. Chutes open up in the walls for the clones to load the droids in. The clones start piling the droids inside.

"We'll get 'em next time sir." Sniper says to Jesse, trying to make the upset clone feel a little better.

"No we won't. We need Rex and the Jedi." Jesse sadly replies.

"These are just simulations sir, the troops aren't taking them seriously." Sniper assures. "It's just a game to them.

"But it should still be a simple battle. We've faced way worse. We should be able to do this with minimal casualties. We're part of the mighty 501st. A legendary legion lead by General Skywalker, one of the most powerful Jedi in the order. We never lose a battle." Jesse insists. "I shouldn't be in command." He hurls a droid across the hall into one of the chutes.

"You're a great leader sir, it's just, not a real battle, you can do this." Sniper replies. "Back when I was with the 648th, I had a friend who was part Commander Star's elite squad. He was terrified that he didn't have what it took to lead his men. While he was leading us through the capital of Mon Cala, we got trapped by a disease called 'The Flood'. He was able to work around it and keep us alive long enough to escape. You're under-estimating yourself, just like he did."

"You're a good man Sniper." Jesse replies.

"Acting commander to the bridge." The intercom calls.

"That's me." Jesse sighs. "I could always use a second opinion." He offers.

"It sounds better than cleaning." Sniper replies and follows him up to the bridge. They stand at the command table where Admiral Yularen is waiting.

"We've picked up a distress call from a Republic transport inside the asteroid field." He reports. I recommend outfitting a few squadrons with space gear and jet-packs to scout out the area."

"What if clankers found the distress call too?" Jesse asks.

"As far as we know, they're the reason they crashed." The admiral replies.

"So they'll pick up a bunch of transports on their scanners if we enter the area." Jesse states.

"Well what if we didn't use transports?" Sniper asks.

"You suggest we just use jet-packs to get through the asteroid field? It would take far to long." Yularen replies.

"No. The droids will be aware that there are escape pods in the asteroid field. To see a few moving around on their scanners. If you launch our pods from the control room here, and we don't activate our pod controls until we're inside the asteroid field. They won't know that we came from the cruiser." Sniper points out.

"I like you're thinking trooper." Jesse agrees. "We'll take Torrent, Comet, Bravo and Giga squadrons for outfitting."

"Yes sir." Yularen replies and heads to the intercom.

"Good thinking Sniper." Jesse congratulates.

"Thank you sir." Sniper replies. The two head back to the elevator and towards the escape pod bay.

"I'm glad we won't be feeling the weight of these chunks of metal in space." Fire jokes and gestures to the jet pack that he strapping on. Their suits have been outfitted with an oxygen supply along with completely pressurized armor that is much bulkier than their normal armor. They look like bulky snow troopers. Now, the four squads prepare to enter their escape pods.

"These pods are our best chance at getting deep into the field. I've pre-programmed a different location in each of the pods to check out. Divide your squad into two groups and load up." Jesse orders. The clones solute and rush into their pod. Fives, Echo, Ash and Sniper board one pod, while Ace, Scout, Charger and Fire board the other. Once Jesse gives the signal, the ship launches the eight pods into the asteroid field.

Not a single system in the pod is activated. The ride is coarse, rough and dark. The clones in Fives' pod grip their seat belt straps tight and close their eyes, waiting for the ship to activate the pod. They have no control over the pod until they do. If they keep their eyes shut, they won't see their pod about to crash into an asteroid, which is better than watching death rush at them. Ash sits in the pilot seat, ready to take control of the pod when the time comes. The pod roars to life, the lights come on and the pod stabilizes. Ash takes control of the pod and starts their journey through the asteroid field. Inside the pod is silent, trying not to distract Ash, just one error could get them killed. After about 10 minutes, Ash stops the pod. He stands up and walks to the hatch. The others stand up and follow him.

"Ready." He asks. The others give weak nods, they're all terrified. Space is a very scary thing. Ash opens the hatch and they're all very quickly sucked out of the pod. They hurl through space until they activate their jet-packs and they slow down. Turning on their helmet lights, Fives orders them to split up. Ash and Sniper pair up and head towards a large asteroid with a cave inside. After a little help from their jet-packs, the gravity of the asteroid slowly pulls them in. They slowly land on the rock, Ash leads them inside the cave. As they walk, they notice an opening in the cave, forming a large cavern. At the end of the cavern, a crashed escape pod lay inside the rock. They step into the cavern and detonators explode launching them into the roof of the cavern, but they're relatively okay. The tunnel closes in on itself behind them. "Whoever was here, was definitely expecting someone they didn't want to see..." Ash notes as they descend toward the pod.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Sniper replies and pulls open the hatch on the pod. Four floating corpses of 41st Elite Corps ARF-Troopers lay inside.

"Ash, take a look." Sniper ushers. Ash takes a look inside the pod and analyzes the bodies.

"Looks like they ran out of air." Ash explains. They pull the bodies out and climb inside.

"Check the database. Maybe there are recordings." Sniper advises. Ash goes over to the controls and pushes a few buttons. A hologram of another ARF-Trooper pops up. He's running when he starts speaking.

"What I'm about to tell you is the most important information ever. The C.I.S. has taken an Umbaran Banshee and cloned it. They're making an army out of this banshee because there's something unique about it. It's sentient and force sensitive. We need to shut down this operation before they use them in combat. They're lab is stationed on Umbara at the exact location I've downloaded into this file. Get this to Coruscant as soon as possible. Oh no!" The clone fires his blaster behind him a few times, then a banshee attacks him, sinking its teeth into the clone and ripping him apart. The recording ends. The two clones stand their in shocked silence.

"It couldn't be..." Sniper starts in disbelief.

"That's impossible, you saw him die." Ash reminds.

"That looks just like Screecher, the Jedi say the force works in strange ways." Sniper reminds.

"Regardless, we need to get this information out of here." Ash replies and grabs the data file. They walk to the cave in, once there they try moving the rocks. Each time they try to push a rock away however, they just float away from the pile.

"I didn't bring any detonators, you?" Ash asks.

"Echo was assigned demolitions this time." Sniper reminds.

Ash sighs and tries to activate his comm link. "This asteroid is jamming our transmission. We're stuck here." Ash reports.

"We may be able to rewire the pod to send out electrical currents. Then the others will investigate and find us." Sniper suggests.

"Good idea, let's get to it." Ash agrees and the two get to work on the pod.

Fives and Echo find a different pod crashed on a much smaller asteroid on the surface. They fly over to it, Echo reaches for the hatch while Fives stands by with his weapon drawn. Echo opens the hatch and four more ARF-Troopers float out.

"I think they dies from lack of oxygen, no blast marks." Fives explains as he checks the bodies. "These are 41st Elite Corps ARF Troopers. They shouldn't be here." He realizes.

"That's right... They should be half way across the galaxy with General Unduli fighting a droid blockade." Echo points out.

"Maybe General Unduli sent them on a recon mission? They're all ARF-Troopers." Fives reasons, but Echo shakes his head.

"There's nothing on the records. No ARF-Trooper missions for the 41st Elite Corps for the past 100 rotations." Echo replies. "Believe me, I check."

"I have no doubt that you do." Fives says as he heads to the control panel. "Let's check the data base." He suggests, then pushes a few buttons. "Two recordings were stored in the pod." Fives activate the first one. A hologram pops up of an ARF-Trooper piloting the pod.

"This is ARF-1297, our transport was attacked on our way back to Coruscant. Get this message to the Jedi Master Yoda. He was right, we found it. The pod carrying the details in pod 47-32. It crashed on the coordinates set in this pod. Find the pod, and extract the recording, it is of the upmost importance that this information gets to Republic hands. If you're hearing this, I'm dead. I failed my mission. The mission however, must not be failed. This is your mission now. Good luck." The recording ends.

"Yoda? What does he have anything to do with the 41st?" Echo asks with great confusion.

"Maybe the second recording will give us a better explanation." Fives hopes and presses another button. This one is a recording of the full pod. Grievous is attacking the clones using suffocation. The clones fight back but it isn't working. One clone gets thrown at the control panel, he pushes a few buttons on it frantically, then falls to the ground. Fives pauses it and zooms in on the panel. "He changed the coordinates." Fives points out.

"That was smart of him, but now we have no clue as to where we look." Echo replies, a little frustrated with the outcome.

"Wait a second." Fives stops in a frantic voice. "Those are the coordinates that..."

Scout ducks behind an asteroid as soon as he spots the droids. The four has split up into two groups and Ace is next to him spying over the asteroid. On the other side, there's a full mining operation on the go. Hundreds of droids drilling into the asteroids, searching for the crashed pod. A command center floats in the center with Grievous in control.

"What the hell?" Ace says in shock and wonder.

"We should contact Jesse." Scout suggests.

"He should be out of range. We need to get back to the pod and find Fire and Charger. For now, let's contact Fives. He's still in range and maybe he has an idea of what's going on." Ace replies. "You talk to him and I'll get a hold of Charger and Fire. Scout nods and contacts Fives.

"Fives, this is Scout." He starts but is cut off by Fives.

"There are droids in your area! Be careful!" Fives warns.

"Yeah, we know. We've found them, they're doing some sort of mining operation. They don't know we're here." Scout replies.

"They're looking for a piece of information that Jedi Master Yoda ordered the 41st Elite Corps ARF-Troopers to retrieve from the Separatists. Apparently the information is insanely important." Fives explains.

"Master Yoda with the 41st?" Scout asks.

"We're as confused as you are. Listen, tell Jesse your situation and the location of the mining operation. We've already told him our information and we're searching for the data now. Can you also try and get a hold of Ash and Sniper? They aren't responding to their comm links." Fives orders.

"We'll try. We'll update you when we get any new information." Scout replies.

"Understood. Good luck." Fives disconnects.

"Fire, Charger, get back to the pod. I'll explain when we get back. Get a hold of Jesse, we've got a situation." Ace orders through the comm link. Fire and Charger look at each other and shrug.

"Yes sir?" Fire replies, very confused. The two jet-pack towards the pod and get back inside. Fire pushes a few buttons and they get a hold of Jesse. A hologram of him pops up.

"Fire, Charger, what is it?" Jesse asks.

"We don't know sir, we were told by Ace to get a hold of you, 'there's been a situation'. He'll be here shortly." Fire replies.

"Have you found anything? All squads have reported crashed pods with dead 41st Elite Corps ARF-Troopers, all saying that pod 47-32 is carrying vital information. I've gathered all the squads back here except Giga because of your reports." Jesse asks.

"We did find the remains of pod 47-29 and 47-30." Fire replies. "Shouldn't 47-32 be in Fives' area based on the pods in this area?"

"Fives reported finding pod 47-31 and 47-33, they couldn't find -32, but they haven't heard anything from Ash and Sniper, so maybe they found it." Jesse answers.

"Sir, Ace just arrived." Charger reports and Ace walks up to the hologram of Jesse and explains everything that has happened.

"Get yourselves out of there. We aren't losing anyone today." Jesse orders.

"Where do you want us to go?" Ace asks.

"Rejoin the rest of Giga. Hardcase just spotted droids heading towards our location, so I'm evacuating every but myself, I'm heading over to you guys to help find the data." Jesse explains.

"Yes sir." Ace replies and disconnects the transmission. Scout, get us out of here." Scout nods and takes a seat at the controls. He pilots the pod back to Fives' location where they find their pod empty. They must be looking for the lost pod. Scout stops the pod and they eject back into space. "Follow me." Ace orders. "We need to find Fives first."

"Come on! Stupid technology!" Ash shouts as he pound his fist on the wall. The rewiring isn't going well at all for them. "Nothing's working!"

"I guess we just have to hope that they find us." Sniper sighs, giving up. He walks out of the pod to take another look at the cave in. As he does he notices a timer on the pod. "Ash get out now!" He orders. Ash frantically tries to get out, but just as he reaches the door, the pod explodes.

Ash screams in pain as he gets slammed into the ceiling of the cavern. He can hear a hissing sound come from his one of his two oxygen tank canisters. The canister he hadn't used yet. It drains out leaving just the one mostly used canister. Sniper flies up to Ash, he seems physically okay. A pretty big concussion and some bad bruising, but he should be fine. What does concern Sniper however, is the mere 30 minutes of oxygen Ash has left. "Well this sucks." Ash chuckles weakly. Sniper sighs and aims his gun at the cave in.

"I'm going to get you out of here, don't worry." Sniper insists and starts shooting the cave in. He gets closer to the cave in to increase power. A rock finally falls loose, hurling right toward him. He holds his hands up, as if that would protect him. The rock stops mid-fall. Sniper is holding it up without touching it. He tries lowering it. It obeys and lands on the ground. Sniper aims his attention to the rock stack and they all give way and clear the tunnel. Ash stares in disbelief as his closest brother uses the force. Finally the tunnel clears fully. "Come on." Sniper says. Ash nods and follows him through the cave.

"Sniper, did you just use the force?" Ash asks.

"I don't know. I shouldn't be force sensitive. Clones can't be force sensitive." Sniper insists.

"Then what was that?" Ash asks.

"I don't understand what's happening! Okay?!" Sniper asks irritated.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I just thought you might understand." Ash explains.

"I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to freak out. I'm just scared." Sniper replies.

"We should talk to Yoda about this when we get the information to Coruscant." Ash suggests.

"Yeah perhaps that's best." Sniper replies. "There's the pod, let's get you inside." Ash crawls inside the pod and they close the hatch, activating the air supply. Sniper calls in the rest of the squad, telling them he has the information. The eight regroup at the pod and Jesse meets them there.

"Alright Giga Squadron, droids have blocked us from getting the pod out of the asteroid field and are surrounding us as we speak. Here's the plan: Charger, pre-program your pod to head out of the asteroid going towards our ship, then stay down here with the rest of us. Ash, move your pod in front of Charger's but leave it deactivated. The moment you get out of the asteroid field, they'll try to capture Charger's pod. At that point, reactivate everything and fly the rest of the way to the ship. Make sure you get this information in the ship safely. Everyone else will stay here with me to hold the droids off and keep them distracted. Once your pod is safe, give us a signal and will jet out of there. Understood?" Jesse orders.

"Yes sir!" They reply. Sniper jets over to Jesse as the others get in position.

"See? I told you you'd do well." Sniper points out.

"The battle's not over yet." Jesse reminds. "Sniper, go to that asteroid further out and make your name proud."

"Thank you sir." Sniper replies happily and jets over to the asteroid. Sniping is his favourite hobby, hence the name. The most fun hes had on a mission was when he was holding off waves of enemy droids on Endor.

"Droids are closing!" Fives warns.

"Good! Let's give them a warm welcome!" Fire says as he grabs his Z-6, hidden in the escape pod. He throws away the old blaster he had.

"You actually sneaked your Z-6 out here?" Ace asks with disappointment.

"It's not mine, it's Bomber's." Fire replies. "It stays with me everywhere now."

"Charger! Launch the pod!" Jesse orders. The pod flies up out of the field while pushing Ash's pod. Everything in his pod is deactivated so he can fell the force of the other pod. His oxygen supply was gone and he was left without air. He focused on being ready to reactivate the pod, but it wasn't helping. His fight or flight instincts were starting to kick in, and he was ready to fly. He feels the other pod get stopped, leaving his pod hurdling through space. He waits a tiny bit longer, trying to get as close to the 'Resolute' as possible, but he can't hold out. His flight happens and he reactivates the pod. He gasps for air all while he pilots the pod to safety.

Back in the field, the rest of the clones wipe out the oncoming droids. The first wave is decimated, but rocket super battle droids follow and attack. They suppress the clones quickly and start pushing quickly. Sniper is the only one shooting, the droids aren't shooting at him, they're focused on the others. He's running out of time. That's when he gets an idea. He raises his hands and focuses on the asteroid. He can almost hear General Skywalker telling Commander Tano 'As Master Yoda will tell you time and time again, do or do not, there is no try.' Sniper relaxes and hurls the asteroid into the droids. Destroying every last droid. The third wave comes in as Ash sends them a signal. General Grievous leads the assault this time. Sniper forces another asteroid into him. Grievous ducks out of the way and the droids follow.

"Get out of here!" Sniper shouts to the others as he forces another asteroid at Grievous. Jesse and the rest of Giga. Fly out of the asteroid field and towards the ship with Sniper bringing up the rear. Hurling asteroids behind him at the following droids. Grievous catches Sniper by the ankle and pulls out his lightsaber. Before he can stab Sniper, Sniper forces him away and launches him into an asteroid. The others stop and stare for a few moments, then continue heading to the ship. Sniper throws one more asteroid at the remaining droids. Utterly decimating them. They're in the clear.

Sniper and Fives follow Jesse through the Jedi temple. It's insanely rare that a clone gets inside of the halls. Master Yoda had requested their audience in his meditation chamber. They walk into the dark room where Yoda sits with his eyes closed. "Found the information, you have?" He asks.

"Yes sir." Jesse replies.

"Yoda, my name is, not 'Sir'." Yoda chuckles. "See it, may I?"

"Understood." Jesse says as he activates the recordings. Yoda sits and watches them, afterwards he stays silent for a few moments.

"As I suspected, a great disturbance in the force there is." Yoda replies. "Sent the 41st on this mission I did. Thanks to you, succeeded they have." He explains. "A new mission for you I have."

"Yes?" Jesse replies.

"Go to the base and shut down the operation, you must. Take only the clones that knew of this information." Yoda orders.

"But, that's only four squads!" Jesse protests.

"Know of this mission, no one must. Kept secret, even from the Chancellor. Join you Skywalker cannot." Yoda adds.

"Sir-Yoda, with all due respect, that base will be heavily guarded. Only four squads and no Jedi would be suicide!" Jesse protests.

"Good point you have. Come with you, I will." Yoda replies.

"Thank you." Jesse replies.

"Dismissed you are Jesse. Fives, dismissed you are too. Sniper, have something to ask me hmm?" Yoda asks. Fives and Jesse exit the room leaving just Yoda and Sniper.

"Yes. I believe I am force sensitive. I was able to throw asteroids without touching them, and I hurled General Grievous into an asteroid." Sniper explains. "Can you help me?"

"Sensed a presence I did. Realize it was you, I did not. Training we must get you hmm? Learn to control it you must." Yoda replies.

"Thank you." Sniper says sincerely.

"Talk to Master Rancisis about training you we shall. Proper training you will receive. But now, meditate with me, you should." Yoda replies. Sniper nods quietly and sits on the cushion next to Yoda in a meditating stance.


	12. VF-6

"Focus. You must clear your mind. Don't dwell on your thoughts. Breathe." Oppo Rancisis slithers around as Sniper tries to life a rock without touching it. "You need to just relax." He insists. Sniper takes a deep centering breath and his tension finally lowers. "Now. Lift the rock." The rock starts shaking and bouncing, but then it starts steadily rising. "Well done Sniper. Now, bring it towards yourself." Sniper concentrates on moving the rock towards himself and it smacks right into his face.

"Ow!" He exclaims as it hits him, and he loses all of his focus.

"You're still focused on speeding through this. You must slow yourself in order to succeed. Come. Let us meditate." Rancisis replies. Sniper sighs and prepares himself for meditation. Ash gets up and leaves them. He heads towards Commander Tano and General Skywalker to have a chat. Sniper starts meditation and his mind begins to swirl.

He's back in 'The Game'. A place he had been many, many, times before. Every time ends with Rex dying. This time he looks for the sniper. He isn't there yet. The battle goes on the same way every time. They're pinned down, that means it's time. The sniper should be there. Sure enough, there the sniper is. Sniper shoots him down. _Rex is safe._ Or so he thought. There's another sniper up there that he had missed. It fires and before Sniper knows what happened, Rex is dead.

The infiltration team stays dead quiet, sitting in the corner of a Separatist transport hangar bay. They had boarded a few hours ago and not a single droid had noticed. Yoda sits in front of all the clones in a meditating stance. Jesse crawls up to him.

"Sir-Master Yoda we're arriving at Umbara." He reports.

"An ally we have." Yoda replies.

"On board this ship?" Jesse asks with confusion.

"Find them we should." Yoda suggests.

"That would risk us getting spotted Master. We're not exactly invisible and this place is crawling with droids!" Jesse reminds.

"Assume finding means with your eyes hmm?" Yoda asks.

"Well yeah-" Jesse starts but Yoda cuts him off.

"With the force, find them we will."

"Are you sure that they're even here?" Jesse asks.

"Trust in the force, you should." Yoda replies. They sit there for a few minutes, then five clone troopers with blue and black armor enter the hangar bay through a ventilation shaft. Three of them have different armor. It's like theirs, but it's as if they're outfitted for women. The other two have normal armor. They rush over to the clones and kneel down next to Yoda.

"VF-6, reporting for duty. You called us Master Yoda?" The lead one reports. They're wearing the strange armor and they sound like a woman.

"What is 'VF-6'?" Jesse asks.

"Volunteer Force-Six. We're part of an elite experimental program. We're all civilians of the Republic that volunteered to join the war." The lead one explains.

"Completed your mission have you?" Yoda asks.

"Yes Master. We were actually on our way out when you called us." The lead one replies.

"Then help us you can? Hmm?"Yoda suggests.

"We're always looking for some extra experience." They answer.

"Good." Yoda says. "Names have you?"

"I'm Captain Chambers and this is my squad: Tech Expert and Sniper S.M. Explosives Specialist Timmerman. Support and Stealth Specialist Renee and Medical and Recon Specialist Ben." Chambers replies.

"Explain our mission, Jesse will." Yoda says and Jesse begins briefing the Volunteer Force-Six about their upcoming mission.

It was an odd sight to see. The five had taken off their helmets and they all looked different. The strange armor was women's armor to fight their build, just like Mandalorians. It was all just so different from what the clones were used to. Their armor is completely black with two blue lines that start at their feet and go all the up to the top of their helmets. Seeing different faces inside clone armor was a startling sight to see. They were also caring different guns, the same guns Commando Clones use.

Captain Chambers had what appeared to be long blonde hair tied in a bun on the back of her head. She looked as though she was stronger than the rest of her team, physically and mentally. Her face seemed determined and gave an authoritative look. S.M. had short curly black hair and she was darker than the rest of them. Her eyes were covered by some strange goggles and her gun had a high-tech scope attached to it along with a longer barrel. Timmerman was a buff guy. You could tell by his face and neck. He was not one to be reckoned with. Yet, he seemed to have a certain caring in his eyes. His reddish blonde hair was mess from his helmet, and he had a bag on his back, presumably full of explosives. Ben was thinner than Timmerman, but strong none the less. There was slight fear behind his straight face. He, unlike Timmerman, had nice light brown hair and had a medical emblem on each of his shoulder plates. Renee also had brown hair, but hers was long and dark. Most of it was tucked into her armor but the rest was straight with a few tangles. She was thinner than the rest but still seemed like she was strong. You could tell that she was scared and that she cared for the rest of the team greatly.

"We'll be dividing into four groups with Yoda leading Torrent to the center while the other three distract the droids by targeting key points in the research station. With Giga squadron down four men, I recommend you five join them. They're targeting the power generator. Fives can explain the rest." Jesse explains then points over at Fives. The five nod and crawl over to Fives.

"You're in charge of the assault on the power generator?" Chambers checks and Fives nods. " We're with you, please brief us."

"Of course." Fives hastily replies. Dumbstruck by the non-clone troopers. "We'll be pushing through the southern hall by force. Expect heavy resistance. "The clankers will think the power generator is the main target while the other two squads will make themselves known to be distractions. When we get to the generator, we blow it up."

"I like the sound of that!" Timmerman cheers. "How do you want us to blow it up. I have around 14 000 nano bombs in my bag. Along with my heavy blaster and a bunch of thermal detonators."

"However, you want to do it. Go for it. You probably have much more experience with exploding things, and I think you'll have way more fun." Fives replies. Timmerman is practically bursting with excitement, he has to bite his lip to keep it all in.

"Fives, the ship is entering the atmosphere. It's go time." Scout says from his seat. He's watching a monitor that they had tapped into during their first hour on board.

"Here we go..." Fives replies. Ben nervously looks over at Chambers.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

Trick's condition had only gotten worse, so Charger decided to stay with his batch mate. They'd been best friends since they could interact. All three of their other batch mates had died on their first mission. All 25 batches from their division had been killed off with the exception of a few other clones. Giga squadron held most of them, leaving just two others: Shark and Target.

"The others are away on a mission now." He says to the unconscious Trick. "Off with Master Yoda to destroy a Separatist research station and stop an evil scheme." He sighs then sits down on a chair quietly for a moment, not really knowing what else to say.

"Charger." Trick murmurs. Charger jumps to his feet and to Trick's side.

"Trick, I'm here brother." He replies.

"Where am I?" Trick asks.

"You're safe on Kamino." Charger replies.

Trick sits up. He notices a lot of medical equipment surrounding him and a lot of medication strapped to his arm. "Am I going to be okay?" He asks.

"Yeah, hopefully. There's only a few things left wrong with you now." Charger replies.

"Like what?" Trick asks.

"Well, your respiratory system has been compromised. You're going to need a few operations for that to be fixed and fit for duty. I'd assume you've noticed the medication in your arm. That stuff is trying to repair the burn form the explosion and the vacuum of space. If it doesn't work, they're going to have to amputate your arm." Charger explains.

"Will I still be fit for duty?" Trick asks quickly. "Charger, you have to tell me, will I still be able to fight alongside Giga?"

"Yeah. They've begun preparing a robotic arm just in case the medication doesn't work." Charger replies.

"Come on then. Let's go see how the doctors are doing." Trick offers and stands up. Charger shrugs then nods and follows Trick down the hall. He has no idea if Trick actually plans to see the doctor, he only hopes that Trick isn't planning something stupid.

The ship lands at the research station and the team sneaks through the halls. They split up and Fives leads his new squad towards the power generator.

"Scout, Ace, run ahead and make sure we aren't running into any traps. Fire, Echo, on me. VF-6 cover our back." Fives orders quickly and efficiently.

The alarms go off which means the other two squads have engaged the droids.

"Prepare for attack!" Fives warns.

Scout and Ace run ahead and round a bend. Blaster shots start hitting the walls as droids open fire on them, they duck behind cover. Fives and the rest of the team round the bend after them and open fire.

"VF-6, attack strategy 4!" Chambers orders. She jumps ahead with Ben and Renee right behind her. S.M stays behind with the others and Timmerman blows off a part of the wall and uses it as portable cover. He picks it up and starts running towards Chambers, Ben and Renee. The three are shooting down droids while constantly moving to stay one step ahead of the droids. He places down the wall then tosses a bunch of nano droids over at the droids.

"S.M.! Get the nano bombs to move onto the droids! I got them pretty close!" Timmerman calls back to her. S.M. nods and controls the nano bombs to move onto the droids.

"Detonate!" She calls out to him. Timmerman nods and blows up the droids.

"Push forward!" Fives orders. "Ace, Scout, cover S.M. Fire, lay down cover fire while the rest of VF-6 pushes through!" The troops obey and Timmerman eventually places the wall back down as cover. Everyone ducks behind it. "The junction is just up there! If we can get to it, we can set up permanent cover by sealing that door!"

"I recommend letting myself, Ben and Renee push forward first so that you guys can secure the area in the next hall!" Chambers suggests to Fives.

"Do it." Fives replies. "Give us a shout when you want us to begin our push."

"Yes sir." Chambers says. "Ben, Renee, let's go!" The two nod and follow her out of cover then dive for the droids. They open fire and keep rolling around, successfully distracting the droids. "NOW!" Chambers calls out to the others. Timmerman picks the wall back up then they start to enter the next hall. The power goes out and the doors start to shut. They start diving into the next hall, but Scout, Ben and Chambers don't make it. All the others can do is listen as they hear two lightsabers activate and a few blasters shots for a moment then one pair of feet running away.

Everyone pulls out their visors and attaches them to their helmets. It's pitch black. No one says anything. They all knew one person had escaped, no one knew which one though.

"We've got to keep moving." Fives regretfully says.

"Why's the power out? This wasn't part of the plan." Echo asks.

"Neither was an evil lightsaber wielder, but here we are." Timmerman replies with a slight croak in his voice. He can't bare the thought that Ben or the Captain or both had just died.

"First time losing a squad mate?" Fives asks.

"We-we've always been together. We've never lost anyone. Not one clone trooper. Not one VF trooper." Timmerman replies.

"You will get used to it. We all do. It sucks and I'm sure that I sound horrible right now, but it's the truth, you just have to move past it." Fives assures him.

"That's because you're programmed that way! We're _actual_ humans. _Real_ ones, with _real_ emotions." S.M. blurts out in anger. The clones stop and turn to face her. Each of them with disbelief and hurt under their helmets. Timmerman nods and stands with S.M.

"She didn't mean that." Renee insists.

"Giga Squadron, with me. VF-6, go away. We don't need or want you." Fives replies and starts walking down the hall. The other clones follow him while S.M. and Timmerman sit with their heads down, leaning against a wall. Renee stands between the two groups, running back and forth, not knowing what to do.

"Guys wait!" Renee calls out but the clones keep going. They turn down a new hall and out of sight. "The two of you are just straight up horrible! How could you be like this? The Captain never would've stood for this and if she were here right now, she'd shoot the both of you in the foot! I'm going to go help them, you guys can just sit there and mope, or you can come and apologize." The two just look at her, then look back down at the ground.

"Fine." Renee sighs angrily then runs after Giga Squadron, trying to catch up.

Scout runs from Ventress. She had force thrown Ben and Chambers into the wall all the way down the hall and now they're fighting off a ton of droids. Ventress picks him up and turns him to face her using the force. He begins choking and she throws his helmet off. He gasps for air as his throat encloses on itself. She points her blade towards him, and he grips tightly to his blaster as she starts forcing him towards her blade. He flies towards her and he fires. The bolt hits her arm and she staggers back and releases Scout. Before he starts gasping for air, he stuns Ventress with his gun. He catches his breath then stands up and cuffs Ventress and takes her lightsabers.

"That's what you get for being reckless." Scout warns her limp body. He picks her up and throws her over his shoulder, then starts walking towards Ben and Chambers. They finish off the last few droids then turn their attention to Scout.

"Did you just?" Ben asks and Scout nods. "With just your?" Scout nods again. "Wow! That's absolutely insane!"

"This means the three of us have a new mission." Chambers starts. "Get Ventress to Coruscant for the senate to deal with. Having her could be the key to victory in this war."

"You will be doing none of that. You will surrender." A robotic voice says from behind them. They turn around to face 30 commando droids with their weapons drawn and pointed at them. The three drop their weapons and Scout drops Ventress. A few droids stay with her while the rest cuff and escort the three troopers to a cell. They take all of their gear, including their helmets, but not their armor.

When they get there, the droids throw Ben and Scout into the cell and keep Chambers with them. "We will deal with the girl first." A droid says and the droids take Chambers away, leaving Ben and Scout alone in their cells.

"This isn't going well." Scout chuckles weakly.

"We never should have come here. VF-6 wasn't ready for this kind of mission. We should've known from the start this was a bad idea." Ben sighs.

"What do you mean?" Scout asks.

"This is only our fourth mission, the first three were all just stealth missions." Ben explains.

"But what about battle strategy four? You guys did that flawlessly. You were an unstoppable force." Scout insists.

"We've done A LOT of training, but we're always together. With all of us separated, we're useless." Ben states.

"Listen, you're going to be fine and they're going to be fine. They're with Giga, and you guys will adapt." Scout assures.

"You don't know them. Renee might be fine, but S.M. and Timmerman have never lost anybody close to them, and they think we're dead." Ben reminds.

"You just need to have hope." Scout explains. The two stand quietly against the walls, waiting for Chambers to come back. Eventually she does. There are scorch marks all over her armor. It's barely visible on the black paint, but it's clearly there on the blue. Her hair is down and a mess with some singed pieces on the ends and she's limping petty badly.

"Clone, come with me." The droid orders. Scout reluctantly follows the droid into a room where Ventress is waiting. She immediately forces him into restraint. They hold him standing with his legs together, but his arms outstretched.

"You're one of the clones from Rishi." Ventress states, facing him with a glare.

"Yeah, I know. I stole your lightsabers." Scout reminds and chuckles weakly.

"You stole the most important thing to me!" She hisses and puts a lightsaber to his throat, she pushes it in with small amounts of force.

"Well, you killed a lot of my brothers that day. 51 to be exact." Scout replies.

"Where were the three squads going and why are they attacking this base?!" Ventress almost screams at him.

"This station is just the first on our list. That's all I'm telling you." Scout insists.

"Tell me everything!" Ventress demands.

"No. Because as long as I hold information, you won't kill me." Scout replies.

"I could kill your friends instead of you." Ventress reminds him.

"You won't because if you do, I will never tell you. If they die because of this information, then I'm forced to never tell." Scout replies surely.

"You took my most important belongings. Now, I'm taking yours. Ventress says and two large metal blocks emerge. One from the ceiling and the other from the floor. They begin closing towards his right fore arm. His dominant are, the one he shoots with. Scout closes his eyes as the blocks near his arm. He feels them touch him, then he screams in pain.

Renee finally catches up to the clones. "I'm so sorry about them!" She says.

"Don't be, it's not your fault that we're just clones." Ace replies.

"They're wrong, you're wrong. Clones are just as human as any other human. You guys are just as human as everyone else. Equally important. The only difference is you all have the same face." Renee fights to prove the clones are equals. Eventually Fives allows her to stay. "Thank you." She says.

"Don't be like the others." Fives warns.

"I won't be. They stepped out of line. I can't believe they said that." Renee insists. "So, what's the new plan?"

"With our much smaller numbers, we're going to need to be far more careful." Fives starts. Ace walks up to him.

"Sir, we're getting a transmission from Jesse." Ace says as he places the projector on the floor, and it projects a hologram of Jesse.

"Fives! Thank the force you're okay! The other two squadrons are dead, it's just us. They're aware that we're here. Yoda has been keeping us alive but those banshees are brutal weapons. We've learned that the original banshee actually died on Umbara defending Clone Troopers." Jesse reveals.

"Screecher _is_ alive." Scout mutters to Fire and Ace.

"They were able to revive it using electrical currents charged by the force. It has to be under constant supervision and requires to be in an electrical chamber at all times. When they cloned it, the clones didn't work very well as individuals. Somehow, the original has connected all of their minds and turned it all into a hive mind. We need to stop this and the hive mind really helps our situation because, if you kill the queen..." Jesse says, expecting an answer.

"You kill the hive!" Fives cheers.

"Exactly! Uh, what happened to the rest of your squad?" Jesse asks.

"We got separated from Scout, Ben and Chambers, then they were attacked by a lightsaber wielder. Then, we got separated for S.M. and Timmerman." Fives answers.

"I want to tell you to go find them, but I need you to join us. We're going to need everybody to push through." Jesse explains.

"Yes sir. On our way now." Fives replies and Jesse cuts out. "Can you send an encrypted message to your squad Renee? We can't let them die."

"Yes sir." Renee replies and gets to work.

Sniper and Ash walk through the Jedi Temple, not talking about anything in particular. They're just messing around and having a good time.

"I'm telling you, fire is a far better weapon than a sniper." Ash insists. Sniper staggers backwards and puts his hand on Ash's shoulder.

"Ash?" He says, Sniper is looking around the temple, as if he were lost. "Where am I?"

"You're in the temple. We were just talking together." Ash answers.

"No! There's a hall and dead troopers. The lights are out, why can I see?" Sniper asks again. "Wait, there's clones over there. Hey! Wait!" The clones stop and run towards him. "Don't you see them Ash? They're right there."

"Sniper, there's no one here. This is some sort of force trick, maybe connecting you to somewhere, or someone." Ash suggests.

"I'm going to see how strong the connection is." Sniper tells him. "It's Fire, Ace, Fives, Echo and some clone with really strange armor."

"Sniper?" Ace asks.

"Can you hear that?" Sniper asks Ash.

"No, I can't." He replies.

"Hear what?" Ace asks.

"It's complicated, but I'm talking to you through the force. I was just talking to Ash. He can't hear or see you guys." Sniper explains.

"They brought Screecher back to life. Now he controls a hive mind of clone Screechers. Maybe you can help us? Can you move?" Ace asks and Sniper takes a step forward.

"Ash, make sure I don't run into anything." Sniper tells him.

"Right, come on then!' Fives cheers and the squad starts running.

Ben and Chambers burst through the door and into the room where Scout is laying on the ground. They quickly shoot down the droids inside then rush to Scout. His right forearm is completely flat. Ben examines the injury. All the bones in his forearm have been decimated, turned to dust. His skin has been flattened and pressed into his now flat armor.

"He's in an insane amount of pain, his forearm needs to be amputated quickly or will die of pain. We can't move him because then the bone dust in his arms will move and he'll be in even more pain." Ben explains. "We need bandages and a way to cut off his forearm."

"Maybe I can help you with that. A voice says as Ventress walks through the door.

"Ventress! Hands up!" Chambers orders. Ventress is limping and holding her side. She has cuts all over her body and she's breathing heavily. "What happened to you?"

"Those banshees turned on me. I hadn't seen them before and went to go inspect them. The second they saw me, they attacked. I need to get out of here, but I'm weak and can't do it by myself. Here, take some bandages and one of my lightsabers. One swift cut will hurt less." Ventress explains. Ben takes the items and he activates the lightsaber. He lines it up and strikes Scout's forearm, cutting it clean off. The heat of the lightsaber quickly drys a wall of blood to stop the bleeding for a short period of time. Ben then proceeds to bandage up the wound. Once he's got Scout all patched up, he picks him and puts him over his shoulder.

"Alright, let's get out of here." He says. Chambers leads them out the door, with Ventress taking up the rear and Ben in the middle.

"I hate to interrupt, but where are your commando droids?" Chambers asks after walking down a few empty halls.

"They've all been decimated by the banshees. As far as I know, we're all that's left in the entire station." Ventress replies.

"Great." Ben says sarcastically.

"Reeeeeeeeeee!" A banshee screeches from down the hall. Giga and Torrent had reunited a few minutes ago.

"Here they come!" Jesse shouts. Ten banshees enter sight and the clones open fire. Most of the banshees swiftly dodge the blasts. Two get knocked down, but the others advance quickly and attack the clones. Yoda slices through one of them, more banshees enter the hall. One banshee picks up Fire and pins him against a wall. He stops it's jaws from cutting into him by pushing them back with his hands. He punches it in the eyes and kicks it away from him, he falls to the floor and picks up his Z-6 again and blasts the banshee into oblivion. "New plan!" Jesse calls out as he dives away from another banshee. "Get out of here!"

"Wise that is!" Yoda agrees as he cuts into three banshees in one go. They start falling back but the banshees surround them. Hundreds of tiny specks fly through the air and attach themselves to the banshees. Fives sees Timmerman and S.M. in the hallway.

"Get down!" Timmerman shouts. The clones duck to the ground as all of the banshees blow up. "Nano bombs." He explains. "We're sorry Giga squadron. While it's no excuse, we were upset. Neither of us actually meant it."

"Mean what?" Jesse asks.

"Don't worry about it." Fives replies. "We accept your apology."

"Alright, new plan. We need to get out of this station. The droids were attacked to. The Separatists will abandon this project thanks to this failure. We will return to the Republic with all of the information on the cloning project. Let's go." Jesse orders.

Trick wakes up in his medical bed. There's no longer medicine in his arms and he still has both of his arms. After his walk around the station, his operation to correct his problems started.

"The operation was a huge success. You're completely free to go with no restrictions!" A medical droid tells him.

"Where's Charger?" He asks.

"Clone Trooper Charger has received a transmission. He will be back momentarily." The droid replies.

"I'm going for another walk." Trick announces.

"You cannot." The droid stops him.

"What do you mean?" Trick asks.

"I have received direct orders for you to stay here." The droid replies.

"Why?" Trick asks, worriedly.

"You are sick in a way I do not understand. It is part of your biological make up. You are, malfunctioning." The droid explains.

"Malfunctioning? How?" Trick asks, even more scared.

"I do not know, but it could lead to death, and we are not sure if it is contagious or not. Doctor Nala Se will take care of you." The droid explains. "Goodbye." The droid starts to leave.

"Wait! No!" Trick calls out but the door shuts and locks him in.

Chambers, Ben and Ventress exit the station. When they get outside, Ventress holds up the others with the force. "You're lucky that I'm feeling kind because you helped me. Have a nice day." Ventress says and walks into a ship, then let's go of the troopers. She flies away while Scout starts to wake up.

"What the? Where am I? WHERE THE HELL IS MY ARM" Scout panics.

"Relax. We're outside of the base, we're going home. We had to amputate your forearm because Ventress flattened it with metal blocks." Ben replies. "We can get you a cybernetic arm when we get to Kamino." Just then, the rest of the survivors emerge from the station. The VF-6 run to each other and go into a big group hug. Ace rushes to Scouts side to help him up to get to the transport.

"Need a hand?" He asks and burst into laughter.

"You're absolutely hilarious." Scout sighs and grins a little bit.

"Let's get out of here." Ace replies and pulls Scout out. "It's time to go home."


	13. Adaptation

Ace and Fire had been assigned a patrol mission around Kamino. They're stuck up there for three days. Fire spins around in his chair, bored out of his skull.

"Relax, we're only here for a few more hours." Ace tells him. "We've already been up here for over two days, we're close to being done."

"It's hard Ace! I haven't been able to use my Z-6 since Scout lost is arm! I haven't shot a single battle droid in so long!" Fire reminds.

"It's only been 50 rotations." Ace states.

" _53_ " Fire corrects.

"Whatever, my point is, it hasn't been that long. And you have used your Z-6. You made the best time on the simulator by yourself." Ace explains.

"The simulators are easy. They always have been. I have been training squadrons since we got here, and the hardest part is trying to keep them alive. Just the other day, I met the new 'Neon Squadron', they bring our name shame! They're sloppy and bad at working together. Sure, we had issues at the start, but we always, _always,_ worked together." Fire complains.

"At least most of your squads are succeeding. All of my squads are failing except one. Remember Bravo squadron from our batch?" Ace asks.

"Yeah. They were the third best team in the batch." Fire replies.

"The new Bravo is absolutely useless. They do not bring their name proud. They didn't even make it to their first row of cover. Three of them were shot while they were still in the elevator!" Ace points out, relaxing in his chair.

"None of us were this bad in the beginning aside from Domino squadron. We passed our first practice. Almost everyone did." Fire reminds.

"Barely, it was messy." Ace recalls.

"We only took down, maybe 14 droids." Fire adds.

"Ash tried to tackle a droid but it fell over on top of him." Ace adds with a little chuckle.

"Wait a second! Hold up. The scanners are picking up a life signal. There's no ship debris though? It's a life signal out in space!" Fire says.

"But there aren't any space living creatures that pass through this system. They must be horribly lost. Let's go see it." Ace suggests.

"Very lost." Fire adds. The two pilot the ship towards the life sign and to their horror, they spot a banshee.

"What? How is that even possible?!" Ace asks in pure shock.

"I don't know, but we need to find out. Let's put it in the hangar bay, then take it back to Kamino for study." Fire replies.

"Pull us in carefully, I'll go bait it into our hangar bay." Ace orders.

"Moving in now." Fire reports as he pilots the ship towards the banshee. Ace depressurizes the hangar, then opens the hangar door. Once he's facing the banshee, he shoots at it, missing on purpose a few times. The banshee turns to face him and screeches. It charges towards him and he runs away, towards the door. To safety.

The banshee flies into the hangar and Fire seals it inside. Ace stares at the banshee from the door window. It sees him staring at him and it charges at the door. It hits the door with large amounts of force. Ace jumps and staggers back from fright. His breathing is heavy, the fright scared him quite a bit. The banshee rams into the door again, this time it dents a little bit. Again, and again, the door is breaking. The door bursts open and Ace fires a stun ray at it. No effect. Ace starts running down the hall, shutting each door behind him as he goes, the banshee, not to far behind.

"Ace! The hangar door has been broken open!" Fire warns over the comm.

"I know! The banshee is bursting through the doors. I'm closing all of the hall doors as I pass them!" Ace reports.

"I'm going to start our descent to Kamino." Fire replies.

"I'll be on the bridge shortly. Just give me a few minutes." Ace states as he closes another door. The descent is quick. Fire is going as fast as he can to the planet below. They enter the atmosphere just as Ace reaches the bridge. The ride is loud and bumpy. "How many doors left!?" Ace shouts over at Fire.

"Five! We're barely going to make it!" Fire replies. "Wait! It's in the vent! It's coming!" Fire warns. It bursts through the vent and Ace shoots it twice with no effect.

"What!?" He shouts, dumbfounded. Fire notices this and abandons his post, diving into one of the seats.

"Get in a seat!" Fire orders. Ace dives for one and Fire pulls a lever that ejects the two, leaving the banshee in the crashing ship. It crashes into the water as Ace and Fire activate their air bags. A giant air bag inflates around them, leaving them in the center on their seats. They strap themselves into their seats, then hit the water with a jolt. Inside his air bag, Fire quickly unstraps himself from the seat and dives out of his airbag as it deflates and sinks down in the water. Ace isn't as lucky; his straps jam and he can't unstrap. He tries to rip it off but to no avail. His airbag deflates and he starts to sink under water. Water starts to seep into the air bag. Ace starts pushing the air bag away from his face. He's still trying to undo his straps as water fills the air bag. He can't breathe anymore; he can barely see anything, and he can feel himself going down in the sea. All of a sudden, he feels a jerk up. He's ripped out of the water and his air bag drains out. He gasps for air as he pushes the air bag off of his face. He can hear a ship above him flying somewhere. He rips open a part of the air bag from his seat and takes a look outside. He's in a net, being held up by a transport ship. He's never felt more relieved.

A few hours later, Ace and Fire board a large submarine. There are 14 of them on a mission to find the crashed ship and the banshee trapped inside, most likely dead, but it's better than nothing. Once the sub reaches the crash point, the 14 clones will launch in smaller fighter submarines. Once they locate the ship, they'll flag it and the larger sub will come to extract it. The clones prepare their subs for launch as the larger sub flies over the ocean. If the larger sub were to get to close to the water, scanners from the transport would detect it and open an alarm system that immediately open fire on the ship as it is not a registered GAR ship. They're about 50 meters up and as they approach the drop zone, the clones board their subs. It a tight fit and the clones have to lie down inside of them.

"This is blue leader, all wings report in." Blue leader orders over the comm.

"Blue two standing by." Ace reports. The clones report in consecutive order.

"Blue nine standing by." Fire reports. They finish reporting in.

"All wings launch!" Blue leader orders. The 14 subs eject into the water. They plunge 50 meters at increasing the water then dive into the water. Diving several meters down without even turning on the engines. Blue leader leads the subs down towards the supposed crash site. It gets dark quickly and they have to turn on their head lights. "Be careful, remember that there are stray aqua droids down here. Everyone turn off your head lights, use your scanners to pick up obstacles. This way we don't get spotted." Everyone switches them off and it's pretty much pitch black.

"What do you mean by _stray_ aqua droids?" Ace asks.

"During the Battle of Rishi, a few Republic cruisers caught parts of their fleet near Kamino. They destroyed the Separatists, but several escape pods crashed into the waters down here. We have no idea how many are down here, but they're trapped on the bottom of the ocean. There aren't enough of them to even do damage to Kamino, but they can do damage to us if they decide to attack us." Blue leader explains. "Critch, stabilize your sub, you're going to crash into someone!"

"I'm trying sir, but there's something stopping me from doing that." Critch explains. "Can someone please check my sub?"  
"Going for it now." A clone says.

"Thanks Tethme." Critch replies. Tethme carefully drives behind Critch's sub, then turns on his head lights. An aqua droid is holding onto the side of it, trying to rip apart the sub.

"Critch, I need you to hold very steady." Tethme says.

"Okay..." Critch replies, terrified off what's on his sub. He starts fighting hard to keep the sub completely steady.

"Gotcha." Tethme replies and fires. The blaster shot hits the aqua droid straight in the head. It falls right off the sub and Critch stabilizes.

"The droids know we're here. Be insanely careful!" Blue leader orders. "Has anyone picked up the ships signal? Blue two, you have the long range scanner."

"Activated it when we launched. I think I've found it." Ace reports. "Yep, I've got it. Flagging the location now. It seems in relatively good shape."

"Good, let's get out of here before-" Blue leader is cut off by another clone.

"I'm hit!" He shouts, then an explosion brightens up the sea for a moment.

"All wings split up! Stay in groups of two and take out these droids. Activate your head lights!" Blue leader orders. They turn on their head lights and see hundreds of aqua droids. "New order! Retreat! All wings retreat!"

Ace and Fire stick together, cutting straight through the droids then swerve up towards the surface. "This is Blue two to main sub. We need an immediate evac! We're on our way up!" Ace calls. Part of his window is shot, and he starts taking on water.

"Ace!" Fire cries out.

"I'm okay! Keep going!" Ace replies.

"All wings, split up! It's harder to hit us if we're not one group!" Blue Leader orders. The wings split up as two hidden Separatist subs open fire on the fighters. Four more subs are destroyed. Only eight remain.

"We're almost there!" A clone shouts then his sub is hit and explodes, the shrapnel hits another sub, blowing it up in the process. Six left.

"Sir! I'm hit! I need to eject!" A clone shouts.

"Fire, go catch him!" Blue Leader orders. The clone ejects and an aqua droid immediately slices off the clones legs. Fire catches him before the droid can kill him.

"My legs!" He cries.

"Hold on to my sub!" Fire orders. "You're going to be okay. What's your name?"

"Theta." He replies.

"What legion are you from?" Ace asks, trying to calm the clone.

"I'm part of the Kamino Guard. We don't join legions." Theta explains.

"How long have you been here?"

"This is my 50th rotation."

"Where did you go for your shiny mission?"

"Went to Rishi. There are new, better, bases there now."

"Is it still boring?"

"Oh yes."

"Tell me about your mission."

"I was part of the broadcasting team."

"I was part of that team a while ago. We blew up our base. Completely decimated it." Fire recalls all those rotations ago.

"Yes, I'm familiar with the Battle of Rishi. How only nine of 60 shinies survived. Thanks to their actions, Kamino stayed safe from a planetary invasion that we wouldn't have been prepared for. Thanks to them, clones can still be produced." Theta replies. "It's one of the battles the Kaminoans teach cadets about in training now. The famed Giga Squadron. I consider myself very lucky to get to meet you guys. But I haven't seen many of you. Where are the rest of your squad mates?"

Scout puts his hands up and the simulation ends. "Just like last time. Failed again!" He shouts, very frustrated. He balls his robotic hand into a fist and shakes it as if it were shivering.

"It's okay, you'll pass eventually. You have a new limb, it'll take time." Charger reminds. Charger has been helping out Scout with his training ever since Nala Se had quarantined Trick for an unknown reason. Charger has been helping Scout through simulations for him to get better at using his new arm. So far, he had failed every single time and it was really hurting Scout's morale, but Charger was there for him. He always will be. Charger plans to be there for all his brothers and nothing can stop him. "Scout, you're going to get through this, and I'm here with you each step of the way."

"Thank you." Scout replies and he loosens up a little bit and his tension in his arm lowers. "I'm sorry, I just want to get back out into battle."

"It's okay. You'll beat it eventually. Did you hear where Torrent Company is going?" Charger asks.

"No. Are we going?" Scout asks, intrigued.

"Are we part of Torrent Company?" Charger replies.

"Where are we going?" Scout asks.

"Outside of the galaxy." Charger replies.

"We're leaving the galaxy!?" Scout asks in disbelief.

"Yeah, assuming you can pass this test, we have seven rotations." Charger replies.

"Then let's get back to work!"

"Welcome to 'The Game' Ash!" Sniper welcomes. He's been able to channel his force visions to allow Ash to join in on them. Though Ash will never receive visions of his own, at least he can understand what Sniper is seeing.

"So what do we do here?" Ash asks.

"Just follow my lead, I'll explain it as we go." Sniper replies. They go through the events of 'The Game' until they reach the last part.

"Sniper! Ace is dying!" Ash shouts. He's kneeling next to a very bloody Ace, leaning on one of the walls on their tower. Charger and Jesse kneel next to a shaking Scout. Scout is holding onto Charger's wrist tightly and Charger holds his, supporting him. Trick and Fire are holding a line with the rest of the uninjured survivors. Everyone else is either dead or injured on the ground.

"Ash move out of the way!" Sniper orders. Ash obeys and runs out of the way. A rocket hits the wall and launches Ace's body off the edge. Fives catches his arm and a large crack is heard and Ace crying out in pain. Fives pulls him over the edge and lays him down.

"We need to surrender!" Ash shouts.

"That won't happen! I tried once; we were all killed. See those snipers up there? We need to shoot them down now!" Sniper orders. He shoots his but just as Ash is about to fire, a rocket hits the ground below his feet, and he launches into a wall and slouches down to the ground.

"Only you can save him." A voice says and Rex, is dead.

They exit the vision and Ash stands up. Unharmed. "Is that actually going to happen?" Ash asks.

"I don't know. Master Rancisis says it's most likely just a simulated fear." Sniper replies.

"Well I hope he's right."

Fives and Echo have been training a very unique batch of shinies. A batch of six of very advanced clones. Ever since Neon and Xerox became legends in their training, a new program had been opened up for advanced clone troopers that hadn't been genetically advanced. This was the case for this squad, Flaming Squadron. Six of the best shinies the Republic had ever seen. They think like ARC troopers. They move like ARF troopers and they fight like jet troopers, swiftly and efficiently.

Slik has become their leader. At first Fives and Echo had been concerned about Slik as he shared the same name as a traitor. But Slik has become a better shiny than Fives and Echo combined. Claw was born with a deficiency; he was born without his right hand but he's learned to make it a valued weapon in their arsenal. Both clones use DC-15s' to their highest skill. Nines is named after Fives except he's CT-9999. He's the heavy in the group with a Z-6, along with Chestplate with his DC-15. Scratch earned his name after they found a surviving commando droid in the research station that Neon and Xerox helped take back. The commando droid slashed him with the vibro sword across his chest in a diagonal line down to his stomach. His armor has a long scratch across it. Scratch is by far the most advanced in logical thinking. He usually has the best ideas and he's the best at carrying them out. The last member is Pale. In an unfortunate accident due to an electrical mishap. Pale was caught in electrical currents that melted his face until it's just a pale flat face. They were able to connect his mind to his helmet so that he can still see, hear, smell and speak, as long as his helmet is on. His helmet is connected to him, he can't take it off. Pale spent several rotations trying to get used to it but eventually he embraced it and started to use his mind to his advantage. Using his mind, he's able to analyze the battlefield and figure out the best route to take to prevent casualties. Fives and Echo stand overhead, viewing the Flaming Squadrons final practice test.

"You think they're ready?" Echo asks.

Fives chuckles and strokes his newly grown beard. "They're more ready than any squadron has ever been. These clones are the most prepared clones I've ever seen."

The banshee came in about an hour ago. It was unconscious but alive. It's restrained now and placed inside of a deadlock sealed vault. Ace and Fire view it through a glass pane separating them from the banshee. Four clones sit in stations, administering experiment and researching the banshee.

"Interesting." One says.

"What is it trooper?" Ace asks.

"Its skin is completely blaster proof. All laser blasts won't pierce its skin. It can breathe in space somehow and it's able to illuminate its entire body with some strange goo." The clone reports.

"Good work trooper, keep at it. Fire and I are going to get supper, we'll be sure to bring you boys some food. We'll be back in a bit!" Ace replies.

"Thank you, sir." One clone replies and the two leave the room.

A few minutes later the banshee start illuminating and the goo starts corroding the restraints. The clones quickly take notice. "What's it doing?" One says.

"It's breaking free!" Another exclaims. The restraints break and the banshee rams into glass. It immediately shatters and the banshee attacks the clones. It grabs one clone and sinks its teeth through his helmet and killing him. Two other clones fire at the banshee while the last one activates the comm near the door.

"This the research team! The banshee has gotten loose!" He shouts as the banshee rips apart the other two. "I repeat! The banshee has got-" the comm blurs out in static as the clone gets stabbed by the teeth of the banshee.

The research station goes into red alert and the building seals itself. Two squads of clone troopers go down to the containment vault to see the banshee burst through the door. They open fire on the banshee and it fights back. It rips apart the clones, swinging them left and right and sinking its fangs into them while it's at it. Within seconds, both squads are completely eradicated.

Colt stands in the command center with Fire and Ace. "Four more squads intercept!" Colt orders over the comm.

"Belay that order!" Fire orders,

"Know your place trooper!" Colt stands over Fire.

"They'll just get slaughtered!" Fire replies. He goes back to his comm. "No one confront the banshee! It is not to be touched, unless you have a death wish!"

"I think we know how to deal with one singular banshee." A clone replies back to him.

"Call. Them. Off." Fire confronts Colt. They're face to face now.

"They'll be fine!" Colt replies.

"They're going to die! You're sending them to their deaths!" Fire insists. They stare at each other for what feels like a while, then Colt activates his comm.

"Lieutenant, call off the attack." Colt orders.

"Thank you. Now let's figure out how to deal with the banshee." Fire replies.

"What if we were to detain the banshee, stun it first then get it away from Kamino?" Ace suggests.

"Agreed. Get every shock grenade we have, and all troopers move into position to fire their blasters. Make sure they're on stun." Colt orders. "Let's move!"

The clones place their shock grenades in the hallway, ready to detonate. Every clone trooper, officer and researcher is positioned in the hallway behind the grenades. The banshee rounds the corner and the grenades go off. The banshee is unfazed and keeps charging. Everyone opens fire on the banshee to little avail. It rips through the clones quickly and the banshee doesn't even slow down.

"Fall back!" Colt orders. Everyone starts running away from the banshee. It cuts through more and more. Fire is the last of the survivors to exit the hall. He seals the door shut, leaving just 12 survivors.

"We need to keep moving!" Fire orders. The clones start rushing down the corridors and sealing the doors behind them. "Come on!" The survivors reach the command center and seal the door. Panting, they lean against the walls. Ace leans on the command table.

"We have 36 minutes until the banshee reaches us." Ace reports.

"36 minutes to stop an invincible banshee." Fire replies.

"Well there's got to be some sort of weakness on the banshee. A lose scale on it, a certain weapon, maybe it's not invincible in its mouth." A scientist suggests.

"Come on men! We can do it!" Colt inspires. "Think!"

"Well it was unconscious in the water." A clone recalls.

"So, was it the pressure, impact of the crash, or the water?" Ace asks.

'Let's find out." Fire replies and activates the fire sprinklers. Everyone gathers around the security camera monitors. The water starts hitting the banshee and it remains unfazed. "Pressure, or impact?" The survivors stay quiet for a little while then Ace gets an idea.

"Do we have security footage of the inside of my ship while it was crashing?" He asks.

"Uh, possibly. One second." A scientist replies. "Here it is! Footage from your bridge as it enters the atmosphere." They watch the monitor as the footage plays. They watch Ace and Fire eject and the ship crash into the ocean. Water starts filling into the damaged ship and electrical bursts zap at the banshee. Every blast does nothing, but a large electrical explosion shocks the banshee and it drops.

"Electricity!" Ace cheers. "We need to get to work, if we can channel the shock grenades through a blaster and hit the banshee, we could shock it hard enough to knock it out.

"But we used all the shock grenades. Remember?" Colt reminds.

"There's got to be something else!" Fire insists. Just then, a lightning bolt strikes near the window and Ace grins.

Inside 'The Game', Ash and Sniper try to change certain portions. Instead of falling back, they keep pushing. They all die. They try not pushing at all and just try staying in their towel. They all die. Every time they try to save Rex, everyone dies. There's nothing they can change; Sniper has to shoot both snipers. So that's what he's trying to do. It's their twentieth time around and even with Ash doing what he can to help Sniper, they fail each time.

Fire and two other clone troopers crawl across the roof of the research station. It's freezing and the rain is pouring down on them. One of the clones has a coil of wire wrapped around him, slowly unraveling as he crawls further and further. One end of the coil is connected to a rifle, while the other is to be connected to the lightning rod at the top of the roof. They stay as close to the roof as possible. If they stand up, they could be very quickly struck by lightning.

"We're almost there!" Fire shouts over the wind. "Keep your grip! If you let go, you might go flying!" The lightning rod is only a few meters away. The clone with the wire slips and slides off of the tower. Fire grabs the cord as the clone gets flung out into the air. Lightning strikes him and he incinerates, but before it hits him, he lets go of the cord, to prevent the others from getting shocked. They keep going until they reach the lightning rod. Fire pulls the cord towards himself and starts connecting it to the rod. Lightning strikes the rod and Fire receives a very painful shock, but the other clone rips him away from the cord. Fire grabs onto the roof and once the strike subsides. He finishes connecting the cord then signals Ace. The two clones start sliding back towards the edge of the roof, to head back inside, and deal with the banshee, once and for all.

Ace sits next to the rifle, modifying the weapon to channel the electrical energy. He gets the signal from Fire that the cord is in place. He stands up and aims the rifle at the door that the banshee will break through at any moment. "How long do we have?" He asks.

"43 seconds!" A scientist warns. They all stand silently, staring at the door with pure terror. "30 seconds... 15... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." The banshee bursts through the door at Ace fires. The banshee drops to the ground. There's a giant sigh of relief amongst the clones then they tether it down and take it outside.

Trick wakes up with a massive headache, he sits up to see Nala Se in the doorway. "Why am I here?" He asks as he rubs his forehead.

"You had a slight malfunction with your inhibitor chip." Nala Se replies.

"My what?" Trick asks.

"It forces you to obey every order the Supreme Chancellor gives you. It's part of a plan to kill all of the Jedi." She explains.

"What!? Why would you do that!?" Trick asks in pure shock.

"Because the Republic is flawed, the Jedi are wrong." She justifies.

"Why would you tell me this?" Trick asks.

"Because you're not going to remember any of this." Nala Se replies and injects hi with some sort of toxin. His vision goes blurry and he passes out.

He's dreaming, he knows he is. Everything is all wavy and everything's in random, different, colours. He can see the rest of Giga, everyone he's ever known, even the rest of Xerox. He's experiencing every single experience in his life all at the same time. And they're fading away. Everything and everyone. Giga starts to fade. "No! I will not forget them!" He insists, and everything fades away. All his memories, except Giga, they survive. He wakes up.

"Do you know where you are?" Nala Se asks.

"No. What happened?" Trick asks. "Who am I?"

"You are CT-4752, or as the others call you, Trick. You experienced severe trauma, I doubt your memories will return. Do you remember anything?" Nala Se replies.

"All I remember is my squadron." Trick replies.

"Good." Nala Se replies. "Good."


	14. The Game Part 1

"I never thought it would come to this. It's been 15 rotations since the incident and I still don't understand how it happened. Every bit of practice, all those simulations, all came down to that moment. That day, almost all the members of Giga nearly died. So many clones died. I screwed up, because of me, one more clone died. So many had already, but thanks to me, one more died. I should've known this would happen though. It should've been me. All thanks to me, another member of Giga Squadron, is dead"

Thirty Rotations Until Arrival

Giga Squadron is gearing up with the rest of Torrent Company for the long trip to the outside of their galaxy. Once they've loaded up all the gear, they gather around General Skywalker inside of the mess hall.

"Alright men, listen up. This trip is going to take a full thirty rotations to reach the target planet. Talagon. Their people recently opened up to us from just outside our galaxy. They wish to make contact and trade deals. We have reason to believe they have opened up to other factions, including the Separatists as they wish for us to participate in a 'friendly competition'. When we get there, they will have expected us to completely prepare for the competition and we will be immediately thrown in. I expect all 144 of you to make it through unharmed. Until we get there, each squad most partake in a few simulation at high difficulty daily. Each squad will receive one hour per rotation. Giga Squadron, you will be going first. Dismissed." Skywalker orders. The ship takes off from Coruscant then enters hyperspace as Giga gears up, then heads to the simulator. They board the elevator with excitement to be doing something else.

"Just like old times brothers!" Fire says as he practically smells the nostalgia of going into an unknown challenge. Standing next to his brothers for a new challenge, with his Z-6 in his hands. It doesn't get better than this.

"Xerox strategy?" Charger suggests and nudges Trick.

"I'm sorry Charger, I've told you before: All I remember is Giga Squadron. Nothing else." Trick replies. There's a sadness and almost and emptiness in his voice.

"Wait, what?" Ace asks. He hasn't been told this yet. He and Fire were dealing with the disposal of the banshee.

"Nala Se told me that my injuries from getting launched outside of an exploding ship with part of my skin exposed caused severe trauma that only kicked in once my adrenaline levels lowered, back on Kamino. She was able to heal me, but at the cost of my memories. They'll return as a symbol of something will show up and trigger the memory." Trick explains.

"So all the missions? Strategies? Happy memories? All gone?" Ace asks.

"Yes, but they'll return eventually. Does anyone else know the Xerox Strategy?" Trick asks and they all nod.

"We've all been using the Xerox, Neon and Domino strategies since we became Giga." Scout explains to him.

"I'm actually thinking we do Domino strategy." Fives suggests. "Push quickly to the center and hold out there until we can secure a path to the Citadel. That way, we get out of the line of fire of the canons on the Citadel."

"Agreed. Let's do it." Fire replies. "All in." He sticks his hand in between the nine of them and everyone follows suit. The elevator door opens and they charge.

"Go! Go! Go!" Ace shouts. The clones push forward, towards the center. This difficulty is higher than they've ever seen though. The droids are giving them heavy resistance. They reach the center and duck behind cover.

"I suggest a slight edit in the plan! This isn't going to work!" Fire suggests as blasts fly over their heads. "We need to use more than just the one strategy. We need a Giga strategy. I'm going to use the Hardcase strategy with Ace and Scout , while I think Sniper and Ash should use Neon strategy."

"Trick and I could get to each of the sides of the simulation and fire from there!" Charger suggests.

"Xerox strategy... I remember now!" Trick cheers in delight.

"And then myself and Fives can use the Domino strategy to tie it all up!" Echo finishes the plan.

"Let's do it!" Fives replies. "Let's go!" Fives and Echo push the droids while Fire sneaks behind. Trick and Charger rush to the sides of the simulation and they start boxing in the droids. Ash and Sniper reach one of the towers close to the elevators. Ash scales it first and hurls the droids over the edge, then mans the turret while Sniper scales the tower. Once he's up, he takes a sniping position and takes out the other turrets. They now have the droids completely surrounded. They destroy every last one, and together they climb the Citadel and grab the beacon at the same time. The battle is won.

Twenty-Nine Rotations Until Arrival

Scout, Ace and Fire head to the gym after the simulation to let loose a little bit. The three begin talking about nothing really in particular. Just fun, easygoing conversations.

"So Fire, how are you finding the trip so far?" Scout teases from the treadmill, knowing his friend has no patience for things like these. Fire looks over at Scout from his pull up bar.

"I'm doing just fine. In fact, I'm enjoying this trip. It's really allowed me to spend time building up more of my muscle, and get my head back into combat mode." Fire replies.

"Oh really? Just wait until we start to really relax and start doing nothing for a few rotations." Ace jokes, aware that his friend is definitely not going to be fine.

"I'll be fine!" Fire insists.

"Sure buddy." Scout replies. "Sure."

Twenty-Eight Rotations Until Arrival

"Who are you? Really?" Trick asks Charger while they're at the shooting range. Charger lowers his blaster and looks over at Trick.

"I'm Charger. Your best friend ever since we were tiny children. I'm always there for my squad mates. No matter how much danger I'm in, I'd rather make sure you are all safe first. I'm equally close with everyone in our squad except for you. You're my closest and best friend, and you always will be. We made an oath when we were just cadets that we will always have each others back. I'd rather die than have to live without because of something I did wrong or wasn't there for." Charger explains.

"I remember that oath now!" Trick cheers for another memory found. "I'm certain that once all of my memories of you return, I will feel the same way."

"I'm sure you will." Charger replies.

"There's something I need to tell you." Trick blurts out to him.

"What?" Charger asks.

"It's really important, top secret, I can't remember though!" Trick replies.

"Uh, okay?" Charger replies with a frown on your face.

"It was something, that could hurt the Republic more than anyone could ever imagine. Agh! It's at the tip of my tongue, I just can't get it out!" Trick says, frustrated with himself.

"I'm sure it'll come to you, we still have another 27 rotations here anyway. There's nothing we can do until we get to the planet." Charger replies.

"Right, plenty of time."

Twenty-Seven Rotations Until Arrival

Ash and Sniper enter 'The Game' vision again, with plans to succeed. When they finally reach the end, instead of letting Sniper do all the work; Ash decides to help. He anticipates the rocket and dodges it as he fires at the sniper. He just barely missed.

"THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO!" The voice screams at them, as if trying to intimidate them into stopping their attempts. They exit the vision and they look at each other with the widest grins on their faces. They high five and Ash looks over at his blaster.

"It's possible!" He cheers.

Twenty-Six Rotations Until Arrival

Everyone is laying around doing nothing. Most of them are in their bunks reading or sleeping. Fire walks up to Scouts bunk to see what he's reading.

"What are you reading?" He asks, clearly bored out of his mind.

"The Last of the Rodians" Scout replies. "It's about-"

"I know what it's about." Fire interrupts. "I've read all of the books in this wretched ship."

"So someone isn't doing 'just fine'?" Scout mocks.

"Ughhhhhhhh!" Fire groans as he starts walking around in circles. "I'm soooooo bored!"

Twenty-Five Rotations Until Arrival

After yet another success in the simulator, Giga gathers around a table in the mess hall with their suppers and a deck of cards. They play a few rounds of Sabacc while they eat, then they all go their separate ways, much to Fire's dismay. Ace and Scout head for the shooting range. Once they get there, they grab their blasters and get shooting.

"Do you ever get this feeling in your gut that something really bad is going to happen?" Ace asks after hitting yet another bulls-eye.

"When you just know something horribly wrong is going to happen to you, or _someone close to you._ " Scout replies after hitting the target.

"I'm worried about ore squadron." Ace states. "A storm is coming, and we certainly don't have the gear to keep dry.

Twenty-Four Rotations Until Arrival

Charger has successfully returned most of Trick's memories about battles and strategies, the good memories are a little harder to trigger. He thinks that if he can get the nine of them to start explaining to him their encounters, something will pop up. Everyone has tried except for Sniper and Ash. They've been spending hours upon hours trying succeed in 'The Game'. And they finally have.

"We did it!" Sniper cheers, but Ash doesn't react.

"Yeah, but now we have a new problem." Ash replies and points towards a bullet hole straight through a clone troopers head. Trick's head.

"On no..." Sniper groans in disappointment and dismay.

"I think this means we have a choice to make. Save the captain at the cost of Tricks life. Or, save Trick at the cost of the captains life." Ash explains.

"That's only if the vision is real. I really don't think it is, I think Rancisis was right, and it's just my fears taking hold. I mean, a lot of bad stuff happens in that vision, I don't think it's true." Sniper replies, almost trying to convince himself.

"I hope your right Sniper." Ash says as he strokes his newly growing beard. "I hope you are right."

Twenty-Three Rotations Until Arrival

Fire stands facing a wall, banging his head off of it. He's been doing it forever. He's trying to figure out if he can hit his head off the wall 1000 times without passing out or getting concussed.

"456, 457, 458, 459, 460." He counts as he bangs his head over and over.

Later that day the clones are gathered around a table in the mess hall. Most of them are having a good time and chatting. Fire on the other hand has his face down on the table.

"Did you succeed in your head banging Fire?" Scout teases after Fire looks up to take a bite of food.

"Unfortunately, yes. I got to 1000 and nothing happened, so I went to 2000, still nothing." Fire replies sadly. "If I were concussed, they'd put me unconscious for a few days, and that would make this trip quicker."

"Don't worry, only 22 more rotations after tonight! That means were almost a third through the trip! But, then again, we also have the trip back and with the exhausted crew on the way back, it could take longer." Scout teases.

"UGHHHHHH! I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!" Fire shouts.

"Then perhaps you'd like to go on a quick mission?" Rex suggests from behind him. Fire jumps up in surprise.

"Sorry sir! I didn't realize you were behind me!" Fire replies.

"It's okay soldier. Not everyone can survive a long trip. Hardcase is losing his mind, he hit his head off the wall 2100 times and got concussed, now he's unconscious in the med-bay for the next ten rotations." Rex explains.

"I WAS ONLY 100 AWAY!" Fire cries and slams his head on the table.

Fire and Scout are gearing up for an outer space mission to repair a broken wire. The ship had to stop because of it and it needs to be corrected as soon as possible if they were to arrive in time.

"All you have to do is go right on top of the bridge, the wire should be flailing rather wildly. Follow it to the source and there, next to it, should be a lever. Pull it and the power will be transferred to the back up wire. The broken wire in turn, will be released and ejected into space." A technician briefs them.

"I have no problems with doing this, but why aren't your technicians doing this?" Scout asks as he finishes equipping himself.

"They're doing inside work, our outside crew died trying to repair it when a meteor shower hit the ship and launched them off it, damaging their armor in the process and killing them." The technician explains then pats Scout and Fire on the shoulders.

"Lovely." Scout replies.

"You'll be fine!" The technician assures then lightly pushes the two into the airlock. "Have fun!" The technician closes the airlock and it depressurizes, then the door opens and the two clones work their way up to the bridge from the outside. They stay quiet on the way up until they spot the wire.

"I think we found it." Scout replies and points to the large wire flailing around, lashing at open space with pure force.

"Don't get hit." Fire warns and chuckles a little bit. "Keep your head down."

"There's the switch!" Scout points out.

"Let's go!" Fire cheers and they rush towards the switch. It swings over their heads and nearly hits them. "That was close! We need to stay closer to the ship wall!" They reach the switch and just as Fire is about to pull it, Scout gets hit with the wire. Scout flies away from the ship, his hands just barely grabbing the wire. His hands slip down the wire until the very end where they catch on a rim.

"I can't pull myself up! The wire is to slippery on this side, can you pull me in?!" Scout shouts through the comm.

"Not to rush you or anything, but our engines are literally about to explode if you don't fix this wire! We'll be stuck out here for at least 30 more rotations!" The lead technician warns over the comm from inside the ship.

"Scout has, fallen off of the ship, can we get a retrieval team?" Fire asks.

"Negative, we've detected four pirate cruisers closing in fast, they'll decimate us if we don't get out of here. We're not exactly in the best spot." The technician replies. Fire has a choice: Save Scout, or save the mission. He doesn't know what to do, so without thinking, he grabs the lever and pulls it, releasing the wire and Scout into open space. He hears Scout scream, then his comm cut out when he quickly is thrown out of range. Scout is dead.

Twenty-Two Rotations Until Arrival

Giga Squadron stands in silence around a candle in a dark room with their helmets in front of them. Ace glares down at the candle with pure anger. He should've been there to help them. If Fire had the help, he could've pulled in Scout and still pulled the lever. He can't imagine how Fire feels and he's finding it really hard not to blame him for Scout's death. Ace hasn't said a word since Fire had to break the news to the others. All he does now is lay down in his bunk, only to get up for meals. Everyone else is concerned for him, but there's nothing they can do. They're trying to cope themselves. Fire's been at the work out room, constantly punching a punching bag. Fives and Sniper have been at the shooting range and Trick has been studying star maps, trying to bore himself into not dwelling on Scout. Ash and Echo have been working on the bridge with the pilots, letting the crew get some more breaks. Charger is the only one holding up. He's been spending all his time supporting the others and not mourning Scout. Fives nods to Ace and he grabs Scout's helmet. The helmet he left behind when he went out into space. Ace places the helmet over the candle, snuffing the flame. They all put their helmets on and exit the room to return to their duties and pass times.

Twenty Rotations Until Arrival

"Alert! Alert! Separatist transports have crashed into out ship, we are under attack! All available troops head to the hangar bay. Do _not_ let them over ride our door controls!" The intercom shouts throughout the ship. Sniper finds himself on the run with Fire to the hangar bay. The others are just waking up and only a few clones are intercepting the droids right now. They reach the hangar bay, where about 20 clones are holding back the droids with the aid of General Skywalker and Commander Tano. They join the fight and duck behind cover. Sniper focuses his mind and pushes a squadron of droids high up into a wall. The two clones push forward and Sniper begins launching droids left and right. Battles have gotten far easier and now that Sniper understands his power, he can become far more battle efficient. He has little use for his blaster anymore and now he can truly make a positive impact in battles. He's got a higher kill count than Fire and a stealth rating higher than Scout's... Sniper shudders at the thought of Scout, but keeps pushing forward. Mourning can be done after the "Resolute" is safe from the droids. He launches more and more droids with ease. He stands right behind the Jedi leaders. They cover him as he uses his mind to obliterate droids. The droids try to push forward but to no avail. Sniper has become a force to recon with.

Seventeen Rotations Until Arrival

Charger and Trick stand at attention as Rex briefs them on their mission. "Recently a lot of things have been going wrong for this ship, and to add to that stack of problems, we've some how started running out of fuel. We think one of the droid transports missed it's target and instead punctured a hole in one of our canisters. We're currently orbiting the planet Lothal. I want you two to head down and see how much fuel the natives are allowing to give us for the credits we have." Rex explains.

"And how many credits do we have?" Trick asks nervously.

"12." Rex replies.

"Oh." Trick replies worriedly. "Great. When do we leave?"

"Now, head to the hangar bay and board a LAAT. It will take you to the surface, see what you can do." Rex explains.

"But sir! 12 credits won't get us any fuel!" Trick insists.

"Move soldiers." Rex orders.

"12 credits literally won't do us any good!" Charger adds.

"Try to strike a deal." Rex replies.

"Oh yeah. 'Hey, mister! How much fuel can we have for all of our credits? How many do we have you ask? Good question. We have a total of 12!" Trick imitates the inevitable conversation he and Charger will have with a salesman.

"I said move!" Rex orders.

"Yes sir." They reply quietly as they solute. They walk to the hangar bay and board their LAAT and it takes off.

"I've got a really bad feeling about this." Trick shakes his head has they enter the atmosphere.

Their ship lands and they leave towards the nearest fuel station. They've landed in the capital city. White skyscrapers tower over the rest of the city from the middle.

"This is ridiculous!" Trick complains as they walk over to the fuel station. "We're in an inter-galactic war fighting off millions of evil deadly robots that are hell-bent on taking over the galaxy and we're going shopping!"

"Maybe, we'll only have to go to one station?" Charger replies hopefully then looks up at the price per litre. "Nope! Never mind. Next station." They reach a new station. Too much again. Another and another. The most they can get is 7 and a half litres of fuel, which will get them no where. They spend the next four hours wandering the streets.

"Sir, I'm telling you, 12 credits will get us no where!" Trick tries to tell Rex through his comm.

"I know." Rex replies.

"What?" Trick asks alarmed.

"There isn't a fuel leak." Rex explains.

"Then why'd you send us down here?" Charger asks.

"To distract you. Both of you have been a little off since Scout's death, but you spent the last four hours distracted, set to achieve a mission, which is all I needed to make sure you're still fit for duty." Rex explains.

"Wait, what?" Trick asks.

"I needed to make sure that you wouldn't be distracted during missions. I know losing a friend can be hard, it can distract your mind." Rex explains more.

"Sir, you don't need to worry about us. Charger and I lost our entire squadron back on that first mission with you." Trick replies.

"Like I said: Just making sure." Rex justifies himself. "Anyway, the LAAT is waiting just outside the city, you should head over so that it can pick up the rest of Giga Squadron."

"Yes sir." Trick replies. "Charger, let's move out."

0 Rotations Until Arrival

The clones gather in the hangar bay, marching to their LAAT's. "This is it men! We're finally here, let's go! Let's go!" Anakin calls out in the center of the bay. Giga Squadron boards their LAAT and prepare for take off.

"Finally! Let's lock and load!" Fire cheers and rotates the barrels of his Z-6.

"You did it! I'm proud of you for surviving the trip!" Charger teases.

"How do you think this is gonna turn out?" Echo asks the group.

"I think I may have an idea. I just hope it's not right." Sniper replies and glances over to Ash. A few more clones board the LAAT and then, it takes off.

Five LAAT's descend to the planet below to meet with the inhabitants. The planet below is green and yellow. The clones can see forests with spires and cities floating over them. As the clones head towards the rendezvous point, they see three other types of transports: The droid's, Hondo's pirate's and the Mandalorian's. _Four_ different factions. Sniper and Ash looks at each other nervously again. The ships land on a large flat platform, and are greeted by short, troll like creatures with scrunched up faces and brownish red skin. The four factions exit their transports and their leaders step forward to greet the new species. Anakin Skywalker, Asajj Ventress, Pre Vizla and Hondo Ohnaka. "Welcome to Geintalas. We are the Gei, and we welcome you to our planet." The lead Gei welcomes them and sticks out it's seven fingered hand and shakes each of the four leader's hands. "One hundred troopers may participate, the others will have to wait here. The four of you will come with me."

"What? That's absurd. How could you expect us to leave our troops?" Anakin asks.

"I agree with him, it's pretty risky." Pre Vizla replies.

"Even I think it's a little bonkers!" Hondo adds.

"I don't mind." Ventress states.

"That's because my dear, you do not have living troops." Hondo replies.

"We do not allow your leaders to participate in this game, as it may lead to an, unfair advantage." The Gei replies and gestures to Anakin and Ventress.

"Fair enough." Anakin replies. "But will my troops be safe?"

"Most likely." The Gei assures. "Come along, there are four lifts over there, get one hundred of your troops in one of them, I don't care which. The four of you will follow me." Everyone obeys and loads their elevators. Giga Squadron loads up into the elevator with most of Torrent Company. The elevator starts rising and then opens up to reveal four floating towers with a bridge that connects them.

"Welcome to 'The Game'. The goal, eliminate the other teams." An announcer calls out over the a radio system that taps into every single communication device on every trooper. "Good luck."

Sniper looks over to Ash. "Well on the bright side, we know my vision wasn't 100% correct since Scout was in them and now he's dead. On the not so bright side, the vision is also at least a little bit correct since 'The Game' exists." He explains.

Ash looks back to him and loads his gun. "It's gonna be one hell of a ride!"


	15. The Game Part 2

"So, this is it. All this training, all this prep. For what? I've spent my entire life training to fight and win a war. I am a soldier not a technician! To die in space because of a loose wire?! This is ridiculous!" Scout complains as he floats around in space. Spinning uncontrollably from the impact of the wire. "I'm not ready!" He shouts. "You hear me!? I'm not ready!" Six pirate cruisers exit hyperspace. "They really were right behind us. Weren't they?" He asks himself and chuckles. The ships start passing over him and Scout looks at his gun. He realizes this is his chance to survive, but does he want to? Those ships could be his salvation, or it could be an endless amount of torture and a lifetime of being a Prisoner of War. "On second thought. In this situation, I'm ready." Scout takes a deep breath in and puts his hands around his helmet. He closes his eyes and prepares to pull. All of a sudden, lights shine down on him and he stops moving.

"If I were you, I wouldn't do that my friend!" A very familiar voice says from Scout's intercom.

"Hondo? Why are you saving me?" Scout asks in disbelief.

"It nice to see you again old friend!" Hondo replies and chuckles.

"Do you even know who I am?" Scout asks.

"Of course I do!" Hondo answers. "You're Scout, one of the clones that destroyed my ships. But all is forgiven now, because I need your help."

"Well, could you take me inside then?" Scout asks, still floating in space.

"Yes! Right! Bring him in!" Hondo orders. A tractor beam engulfs Scout and pulls him in to Hondo's ship. He lands in the hangar bay, rips off his helmet and gasps for less artificial air. Three pirates with blasters follow Hondo as they walk towards the clone, struggling to get up. He looks up at the pirates. "Scout!" Hondo cheers and sticks out his arms. "Give an old friend a hug!" Scout looks directly at Hondo.

"I'm not really your friend." Scout insists with distaste in his voice. Hondo laughs.

"Of course you are! Now come on! We have a lot of discussing to do." Hondo replies.

The clones stand in their tower, ready to start. They all stand in silence and pure focus. Rex stands in the front of the group with his hand held up in a hold sign. The bridge looks more daunting as time passes, everyone charging at one time would be terrifying. Five minutes until it's time to start.

A large cube building made of just glass orbits the arena with the four faction leaders, the Gei leader and a few guards. Anakin stands in between everyone with his arms crossed. "I don't like this." He frowns, uncomfortable with leaving his men on their own.

"You should have more faith in your men. I have full faith that my warriors will succeed." Pre Vizla suggests, he stands on the right, next to him.

"No." Asajj interrupts from his left. "He should be worried. His clones are going to be decimated!"

"I couldn't agree with you more." Hondo replies from the left of Ventress as he puts his arm around her. She sticks one of her lightsabers to his stomach. He quickly backs off.

"Do that again and I'll cut every organ out of your body." She threatens.

"So sorry my dear." Hondo replies with his hands up then he chuckles. "Feisty." He mutters under his breath.

"Are we ready to begin?" The Gei leader asks them impatiently with a smirk.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Anakin replies with deep breath.

"Then let's begin." The Gei states then grabs a switch and pulls it. The arena expands ten times its original size and a thousand new troops appear for each faction. Everyone exchanges confused looks. "Each trooper has been cloned ten times and placed into 'The Game' to increase the size and entertainment of 'The Game.' They have been marked with single coloured armor for recognition. Clones are blue, droids are red, pirates are yellow and Mandalorians are green.

"That's a little psychotic, don't you think?" Anakin asks with frustration.

"The Game' starting in 5, 4, 3, 2... 1."

The four factions charge onto the bridge, over four thousand soldiers running towards each other, prepared to fight and die for their cause. They open fire on each other, and soldiers begin falling down, left and right. Mandalorians launch their jet packs, fly into the air and fire their rockets at the ground, launching clones, droids and pirates into the air and off the bridge, falling to their deaths. Commando droids attack the others with vibro swords and the clones and pirates dive at the rest, breaking out into brutal hand to hand warfare. Ash dives at a commando droid and steals its sword, he slashes the droid and starts saving other clones. He grabs another sword and dives at the rest of the droids. Surrounded he fights the droids side by side one of the Gei clones, slashing and stabbing his way through the hoard.

Ace throws his blaster at a Mandalorian in the sky, knocking him close enough to the platform for Ace to jump onto him, rip off his jet pack and put it on himself. He uses the rocket on the pack to launch it at the Mandalorians on the ground. Then he charges at the flying Mandalorians and begins to take them down in a fist fight in the air. More clones follow suit and the battle becomes both in the air and the ground.

Sniper falls back to the tower with a few other clones where they climb to the top and begin sniping at enemies. Others begin catching on and rockets fire at the top of the tower. "Watch out!" Sniper shouts just as a rocket slams into the tower and launches clones off the tower. Sniper gets knocked back but stays om top. Another rocket strikes and launches him to the side, he rolls from the momentum, but is able to stop himself. He pushes himself back up and starts firing back at the rocket launchers. Another rocket launches Sniper back and he slides off the tower. He catches himself and starts pushing himself back up, but another rocket launches him off. He hugs the wall as he slides down, trying to get a grip. A rocket hits the wall which blows a hole into it, giving Sniper his chance. He grabs the wall and pushes himself inside. He rolls onto the floor and gasps for air. His armor is scratched and damaged, parts of his body are left exposed and he can feel several cuts on his body slowly bleeding. He rolls onto his front and begins crawling towards the stairs. He needs to get back and help protect Rex.

Fire stands in the center of the mess of soldiers with his blaster, wiping out enemy after enemy. "Eat heat!" He shouts through his helmet as he blasts a pirate straight off the bridge. A pirate jumps on his back and pulls him down. Fire throws the pirate over his shoulder and pushes him off the edge. Another pirate dives at him but he gets hit by Fire's Z-6. Another and another try to take him down, but he fights them off with brutal force. He eventually pushes them all away and continues firing at the others.

Trick and Charger fight side by side as enemies charge at them one after another. Charger gets tackled by a commando droid that begins strangling him. Trick throws the droid off of him and off the bridge. Charger gasps for air and Trick offers his hand. They join hands and he helps Charger up. "I still don't remember everything, but I'm here for you brother." Trick assures.

"That's good to hear." Charger replies as he stands up. "Now keep shooting!"

Fives finds himself surrounded by pirates with a small squad of clone troopers. Each clone falls one by one, but Fives stays standing. He spots a pirate with two clone DC-17's and dives for him. Fives shoots him down and takes the two blasters. He side rolls around and shoots down pirate after pirate. He dives at another, just barely avoiding being shot. He drops a thermal detonator in the center of the hoard and dives off the bridge, holding onto the edge as a bunch of pirates are all launched off the bridge. He throws himself back onto the bridge and rejoins the combat.

Echo watches as the clones next to him get launched back by an impact grenade. "Push forward!" He shouts. Fifty-six clones push through the Mandalorian lines and find themselves at the Mandalorian tower. They open fire from behind the Mandalorians and they fall quickly but the Mandalorians catch on and start mowing down the clones. They fall back into the tower, a few Mandalorians follow. "Run!" Echo orders and they start running towards the bottom of the tower. Only four of them remain, the Mandalorians remain close behind.

"Echo, we have no choice, we need to fight." One of the clones replies.

"Good luck." Echo sighs and loads his gun. "This'll be one hell of a fight."

Scout sits in the landed cruiser, guarded by a few pirates. He could hear the others preparing to leave and now he knows they've left and now he's just stuck alone, with pirates. Or so he thought. Three pirates rush in urgently. "We need you all outside, we have a situation." The pirates run off, leaving Scout by himself with just hand cuffs.

"That's funny." Scout chuckles and detaches his arm. He slides the cuff of his arm and reattaches his arm, leaving just one wrist cuffed, he runs out of the ship to see a most unexpected sight: Thousands of troopers everywhere in mass combat. The entire huge docking bay is just one giant battlefield for thousands of each faction alone. Scout runs towards a clone he recognizes. "Lock!" He shouts. "What the hell is going on?!"

"We don't know!" Lock shouts back. "Thousands of random troopers just appeared out of nowhere and attacked the other factions. We had to join the battle to prevent certain death, this place is brutal!" Lock shoots down a commando droid and throws Scout its gun. "Get shooting!" Scout dives into the battle and starts trying to save the other clones. He grabs a vibro sword and slashes at enemies while shooting the ones to far away.

Sniper finally gets to the top of the tower again where he comes face to face with two Mandalorians. "Time to take out the trash." One says and cracks his knuckles.

"Agreed." Ash says from behind them and whacks them both with the vibro sword handles. Sniper sighs with relief as the two fall to the ground.

"Thanks brother." Sniper says to Ash as Ash helps him up.

"How are you supposed to protect Rex if you're dead?" Ash asks and smirks under his helmet.

"Rex doesn't need protecting. The only thing here similar to my vision is the setting, that's it." Sniper insists.

"I'm staying with you from now on." Ash states.

"Sounds good." Sniper replies and droids start rushing towards them. Ash stands in front of Sniper and draws his swords.

"Not today droids." Ash threatens as the droids charge into Ash. Sniper fires at the droids and Ash slashes and stabs the ones that get too close.

Rocket launchers crash down on the bridge, causing explosions that surround Fire and the group of clones with him. They have to do something about the jet packs and rocket launchers. "Anyone got any ideas?!" Fire shouts to his group.

"Anyone got droid poppers!?" One clone shouts.

"Good idea soldier!" Fire shouts and tosses his poppers at the clusters of Mandalorians in the sky. The poppers disable the jet packs and they all fall from the sky and plummet to their deaths.

"Good work men!" Rex cheers as he takes out another commando droid.

"Good to see you're still alive sir!" Fire replies, shouting over the mass fire power.

"Seems to be a rarity at this point!" Rex shouts back.

"It's not looking great for us right now! I think the Mandalorians have the upper-hand!" Fire explains.

"I unfortunately agree! They need to be our main target! Spread the word!" Rex orders.

"Yes sir!" Fire replies and leaves the center of the bridge.

Charger and Trick hurry away from four Mandalorian rockets that land at the same time and explode at the bridge floor. Parts of it chip away and the bridge starts to bend. The pirate tower begins sliding down as the bridge bends downward. Hundreds of soldiers start sliding down the bridge. Most catch themselves but many keep falling, including Trick. Charger watches his friend slide down the bridge. Trick, helpless to the oncoming fate tries to get his grip but it doesn't look good. Charger fires his extension cable which pierces through Trick's forearm. He screams in pain as it rips his skin when it catches him. Charger pulls him up and bandages his arm. "We can get you better treatment after the battle." Charger explains.

The yellow pirate tower falls from the bridge and falls out of sight. Every pirate clone in battle turns to dust and blows away in the wind. The others stop fighting for a moment to realize what just happened. The few remaining pirates stand dumbfounded then soon find something strange happening to them. Fire watches a pirate stare at its hand as it slowly dissolves into dust along with the rest of the body. Every pirate left turns to dust and floats away in the wind behind the clone pirates. That leaves the other three teams left with one less opponent. After a few moments, they resume their fight.

Echo dives at a Mandalorian as they reach the same floor. Four clones versus six Mandalorians. Echo punches the Mandalorian in the face and rips away his gun, shooting him then firing at another. The clones are all being pushed down by the Mandalorians but Echo saves them. "Let's get out of here."

Ace fires at the flying Mandalorians from above them, not noticing what was going on. Ace quickly shoots down the Mandalorians but they finally catch on and fire at Ace. His jet pack gets hit and it sputters out of control. He releases it just as it explodes, and he plummets to the bridge. He lands on it and rolls, trying to stop any major injuries. It doesn't work. He slams into the ground and he hears loud cracks throughout his body. His arms are both bent in the wrong ways and he can barely feel his legs. He's clearly bleeding from his armor and some blood is dripping from the bottom of his helmet. He struggles to move, but he's into much agonizing pain. He cries out, trying to get some attention. Fives finds him and picks him up.

"I'm getting you back to our tower." Fives explains and starts running. He pushes through everyone and anyone who gets in his way. He finally reaches the tower and lowers Ace inside. "Don't die." Fives orders. Ace chuckles for a quick second then relaxes on the ground and Fives runs back into the battle.

Scout and Lock stand in the middle of the action, thousands of enemies fighting around them. They watch as all the pirates strangely turn into dust, giving them to space to do a quick analysis of the area. They spot a lot of clones in one area and they run towards them. Just as they're about to reach them, a giant red scaly and clawed hand reaches over the ledge and crushes the clones. Another hand reaches out next to it, crushing more troopers. A giant dragon like creature crawls onto the platform and starts attacking everyone. All troopers decide to turn their attention to the beast and try to fight it off. It breathes fire and completely roasts several troopers. It swats at several troopers, launching most off the edge. Scout gets hit and starts rolling towards the edge. He jabs his metallic fingers into the ground and can stop himself. He sees the beast about to breathe more fire. He rushes behind a LAAT as the fire scorches the spot he just was. A commando droid slashes his good arm and he howls in pain. He wacks the droid so hard with his blaster that its head flies off its body. Mandalorian rockets launch at the dragon, pushing it off the edge and it starts flying. Lock falls next to Scout, panting under his helmet.

"Things just keep getting worse!" Lock shouts to him and laughs, trying to make the best out of the worst situation.

"Is it possible to take that thing down?!" Scout shouts back. The beast begins shooting its fire at the platform and the metal begins to melt. The platform starts bending and people start to lose their balance and slide off. Scout punches the metal hard with his robotic arm, again and again until he breaks through. He grasps the hole and grabs Lock's hand. The platform continues bending until it's completely vertical. Everything falls off it except for Scout and Lock. Mandalorians float down with their jet packs to finish off the survivors. Lock uses his droid poppers to disable as many of them as possible. Leaving very few Mandalorians in the air.

"On the bright side, there isn't thousands of soldiers trying to kill us!" Lock chuckles.

"Let's figure out how to get away from the beast!" Scout shouts back.

"Attach your extension cable to the hole, let's lower ourselves down to the ground." Lock suggests. The two fire their cables and lower themselves to the ground. Once they pass the treetops, they see even more soldiers fighting on the ground.

"Seriously!?" Scout cries in frustration. "It's gonna be a long day."

"Let's go." Lock sighs. They reach the ground and rejoin the combat.

"I'm contacted General Skywalker." Scout announces as they run.

All four leaders stand uncomfortably as they watch 'The Game' unfold. Anakin receives the new from Scout on his intercom and he closes his fists. "That's it. I'm done with this!" He announces and heads towards the exit. The Gei guards draw their weapons; lightsabers.

"I would think twice about doing that." The Gei leader warns.

"I'd think twice about threatening me!" Anakin replies and forces back all the guards. "You've caused a mass war on this planet that was supposed to be neutral!" The other leaders are startled by that.

"Why would I do that?" The Gei asks, clearly guilty.

"Because you want us to pay you reparations." Ventress realizes.

"I'm getting my men out of here." Anakin replies. The others agree.

"Fine, I'll deal with you all the hard way." The Gei leader states and pulls another lever. It returns all the pirates and the clone pirates to their original state, but now, all the Gei clones turn on the factions. Thousands of cloned soldiers facing off against a few hundred troopers from the four factions, along with their leaders.

"Everyone order your troops to fight together!" Anakin orders, then breaks on the glass sides and jumps down to guard the survivors. Everyone falls back to the blue tower. Anakin, Vizla and Ventress stand in the front, deflecting as many blaster shots as possible, but they're suppressed.

"Snipers in the block!" Rex points out. Gei guards fire from the viewing block that the leaders had once been in.

"Not for long!" Sniper replies. "Ash! Let's go!" Ash nods and they fire their extension cables. They reach the top and attack the snipers. The Gei draw lightsabers and Ash tosses Sniper one of his vibro swords. They stand back to back, surrounded by eight lightsaber wielding trolls.

"Ready for this?" Ash chuckles, prepared to lunge at the nearest Gei.

"To the end brother." Sniper replies and tightens his grip on the sword. "Will these things hold against lightsabers?"

"Maybe?" Ash tells him truthfully. "Try to get a lightsaber."

"Good luck."

"Yeah." Ash replies. "You too."

The Gei advance but before they can attack, a rocket hits the block and glass shatters everywhere. Ash gets launched into a wall and he struggles, trying to get back up. A few Gei get launched out and Sniper catches one of their orange lightsabers. He grips it with both hands and the remaining five Gei guards attack. Sniper over them as they lunge at him. One almost stabs another but it swiftly dodges the blade, leaving four to fight. He throws the lightsaber at another but the Gei simply dodges it. Sniper goes to jump out of the way again, but a lightsaber scratches his shin and he falls to the ground. He tries to push himself back up but can't. Ash finally stands back up and attacks the closest Gei with just his hands. He grabs onto it's back and pulls him down, rips the lightsaber from its hands and stabs the Gei with it. He slides on his knees, cutting a different Gei in half and grabs its lightsaber. He kicks one back and it falls off the edge. He fights the other two quickly and swiftly. They fall to the ground after Ash impales them both. The Gei leader jumps into the building and activates his two red lightsabers.

"Let's dance." Ash challenges and braces for a fight. The Gei grins and steps forward. They clash, strike after strike. Ash deflects each blow with ease, but never gets a chance to strike himself.

Sniper watches as Ash slowly starts losing ground on the leader. They enter a deadlock where they push both their blades together against one another. He can see another Gei climb over the edge and pull out its lightsaber. It starts walking towards Ash. Sniper tries to use his force abilities to push the Gei away, but he's trying, not doing. He tries over and over again. The Gei gets closer. Ash notices the Gei and takes a deep breath in. This is it. Sniper stands up and runs at Ash.

"Sniper no!" Ash shouts as Sniper runs into him, pushing him out of the way and taking all three lightsabers himself. Mandalorians land in the block and attack the two Gei and Sniper staggers, falling off the block. Ash catches him by his wrist, and he dangles in the air. The lightsaber cuts still fresh on his chest armor. Barely breathing, Sniper looks up at Ash. "I've got you!" Ash assures.

"This is the end." Sniper says through his collapsing breath.

"I'm not letting you fall! You're going to be okay!" Ash replies with tears forming in his eyes.

"Take care of the others." Sniper orders.

"No. Because you'll be there to take care of them!" Ash insists.

"Promise me!" Sniper insists back. Ash goes to say something, but a rocket hits the block and the building shifts diagonally, knocking everyone off their balance. Ash grabs the side of the wall and slides over the edge. He's now hanging over the edge, holding onto the edge with one hand and holding onto Sniper with the other. Ash tries to pull himself up but with no avail.

"I can't get us back up!" Ash states with panic.

"Let me go!" Sniper suggests.

"No!" Ash replies. "Are you crazy!?"

"I'm going to die anyway! This way you stand a chance!" Sniper explains.

"Don't say that! We'll wait here for the Mandalorians to pick us up!" Ash suggests hopelessly. The block shakes a little and sinks a little bit. Ash almost losses his grip. "I can't let you die!"

"I already am dead! I only have a few minutes." Sniper replies. His breathing gets heavier and slower. His voice starts to sputter as he looks up at Ash. "Bro-ther... let... me... go." Ash looks down at him and releases his wrist. Sniper falls into bottomless pit below and Ash watches as he brother, his best friend, Sniper, falls out of reach. He pulls himself up into the block and sits in the corner, gasping for air. Sniper is truly gone.

The center of the bridge explodes and splinters, launching anything in the middle of the bridge into the air and then falls into the bottomless pit. All three towers start floating downwards. The parts of bridge that remain attached to the towers cause the towers to start rotating. Everyone loses their balance and start sliding off the tower. Fire and Fives slip next to each other and grab the rails at the top. They flip over the rails due to the rotation.

"Ace is in the tower badly injured!" Fives explains to Fire.

"We need to get up there!" Fire adds. They push themselves back up, then fire their extension cables into the tower. They quickly climb up and find Ace, sprawled onto the wall that is now the floor. "Ace! We've got you!" Fire assures as he kneels over Ace. The tower shakes as it falls and Ace groans in pain.

"Hold onto something, this is going to be a bumpy ride!" Fives warns.

Trick and Charger slide off the tower and begin falling down to their supposed death. Turns out, the pit isn't bottomless. It's a hologram that hides a large body of water. The two clones dive into the water, relying on their armor to help with the impact. It works and they pop up with very little bruising. They look up to see the towers slowly edging towards the body of water.

"Swim." Trick suggests, dumbfounded. "SWIM!" He shouts. All surviving troopers swim for shore as the towers threaten to crush them. As they swim, hundreds of soldiers fall over them. Echo lands right next to them and joins them in their swim. When they reach shore, the three clones run as the Gei clones try to shoot down any survivors. The three whip past branches and vines that lash at their armor. They don't stop until they're clearly safe for a while. They crouch with their hands on their knees and their heads lowered, gasping for more air.

"Where's the others?" Charger asks Echo.

"Don't know for sure." Echo replies and stops for breath. "I think I saw Fives and Fire climb into the tower where they put Ace."

"And didn't Sniper and Ash go to the block to deal with the Gei leader?" Trick adds.

"Hopefully we're right." Echo replies and stands up straight. "Now let's find a safe place to not die."

Scout and Lock find themselves on the run. Gei clones disguised as green armored Mandalorians chase them on their jet packs. Barely outrunning them due to the dense jungles. They stop when they reach a cliff about fifteen meters high into a deep river. They start climbing down the cliff, but the Mandalorian clones catch up to them. They fire their rockets at them, barely missing. Scout swings out of the way and the rocket explodes below him. They fire another and Scout watches as it hits the rock before it hits Lock. It explodes almost directly in his face. His helmet explodes and blood splatters everywhere. Lock looks at Scout for a split second before he gets launched off the cliff.

Scout saw Lock's terrified face as he fell. His face had been almost completely decimated. He could see most of his skull, with skin on the edges flapping off of him. Blood streams down his face and his eyes hang out of the sockets, only half complete, the other half had been blown off. It looked painful and all Scout could think about was he couldn't let happen to him too. He can mourn Lock later.

He rushes down the cliff as fast as he can, and when he sees another rocket fire, he lunges off the cliff and dives into the water. Now only five meters above, the dive was much easier, and he can recover quickly. He stays underwater for a while to make sure the Gei think he's dead. The current sweeps him away and after thirty minutes of floating, he reaches the end. He pushes himself onto the sandy shore and lays down for a few moments then notices Lock's body next to him. Scout takes off his own helmet and places it over Locks head. "I'm sorry brother." Scout sighs and pats his dead brothers' shoulder. Scout stands up and starts digging in the sand to make a proper resting place for his brother.

 **Well than! A crazy chapter, but for me, it was one of my favourites. What did you think about this chapter? The battle? The outcome? The death? Please let me know! I love feedback! Thanks in advance! There's still one more part to this arc, so stay tuned! Have a great day and if you have any predictions about what's coming, let me know!**


	16. The Game Part 3

"Death is a plague that affects everyone. The lucky one is the victim who won't have to deal with the aftermath and now thrives in a better place. Everyone has a family that will miss them dearly when they depart from the land of the living. But being a clone trooper makes you part of the biggest family off them all. We're there for each other and it's our mission to remember each and every one of our fallen brothers, and Lock: You will never be forgotten." Scout says to the newly formed gravestone of Lock. It's just a simple flat rock but Scout spent a few hours engraving Lock's name into it and his number. He solutes to the grave and then grabs his blaster and the med-kit he took off of Lock's armor. "I need to get moving Lock. Thank you, for your service to the Republic." Scout thanks then starts walking away. "Say hi to the rest of our fallen brothers for me."

The tower crashes into the water causing a mass tidal wave that tears through the trees and washes away all Gei clones and normal soldiers to close to the shore. Ace, Fives and Fire bounce up, almost hitting the ceiling then slamming back onto the floor. Ace yelps in pain, barely conscious, he groans as Fire lands on top of him. He quickly pushes himself off Ace and checks to see if he's okay. Fives lands next to him with a loud thud. Fire stands up and stretches his back. He looks outside to see troopers everywhere on the shore fighting the Gei clones and guards. It's clearly an uphill battle and they're grossly outnumbered.

"This CT-7567, Captain Rex. Is anyone else out there!?" Rex calls out from Fire's comm.

"This is CT-5597, Kix. There's twelve off us on the North shore hidden in the trees." Kix reports.

"This is CT-4751, Fire. I, and two others are still inside the tower." Fire reports. Four more groups of clones report in, including Echo, Charger and Trick. Then, the Captain continues speaking.

"All clones hold tight. Stay alive. The _wolves are coming_ in _one lithium."_ Rex explains.

"What?" Fire asks with pure confusion. "What's a lithium?"

" _It's a code._ Did you actually pay attention in the training briefings on the ship?" Fives asks, with annoyance in his voice.

"Fives." Fire replies with a smartass tone. "Do you remember my experience on that ship?"

"Fair point." Fives replies. "Rex is saying that reinforcements are coming in one hour.

"How are they so close?" Fire asks.

"You really think we'd come here with no back up?" Fives laughs. "You really need to pay attention to the briefings. The entire 104th Wolf Pack was waiting on standby, orbiting a nearby planet, hence the phrase 'the wolves are coming."

"Wow. I did not pick up on that at all!" Fire replies and laughs.

"At least that means the Gei probably didn't pick up on it either." Fives suggests.

"When we get back, I think I'm going to spend some time learning strategies and codes." Fire states.

"Good. Maybe you'll finally be more than just a brute soldier." Fives jokes.

"Hey!" Fire replies, pretending to be offended. "So, we just wait here?"

"Well, maybe not in here." Fives explains as water starts seeping into the room.

"I've got Ace, you find us a way out of here." Fire orders.

"Ahem. Who commands our squad?" Fives asks.

"Sorry sir. You are." Fire replies. "What are your orders?"

"Uh, you get Ace, I'll find us a way out of here." Fives answers quietly.

"So exactly what I said?" Fire asks with a smirk. A giant wave of water pours into the tower and it starts flooding.

"Let's continue this conversation later?" Fives suggests. Fire nods and picks up Ace. Ace groans and mutters a 'thank you'. Fives fires his extension cable and begins climbing up.

"Trick!" Echo shouts. "Trick, wake up!"

"What?" Trick groans. He's lying on the ground in the forest, with Echo and Charger standing around him.

"Get up! The Gei are coming!" Echo warns.

"Oh!" Trick jumps to his feet. "Let's go!" Just as they're about to run, a blaster shot hits the tree next to Echo.

"Take cover!" Echo shouts and they dive behind the trees. Dozens of Gei soldiers fire on the trees. Echo feels a slight burn on his back and turns to see the tree starting to smolder. "We need to find a better vantage point!"

"I've got an idea!" Trick shouts to the others. "Cover me!" Echo and Charger nod and dive out from behind the trees and open fire at the Gei. They hit a few before being forced down behind fallen trees. Echo throws a grenade over the tree and it explodes near a squad of Gei soldiers, launching them into the air and disabling them. Trick dives behind a large tree with nearly a four-meter diameter and places charges around the back side, away from the enemy then detonates the explosives. "Echo! Charger! Watch out!" Trick shouts as the detonators launch the tree up and land on the Gei soldiers, crushing most of them. About a dozen remain but they decide to retreat.

"Great work Trick!" Echo congratulates.

"Celebrate later. Right now, we need to get out of here. Those Gei will be getting reinforcements." Trick orders quickly.

"Right! Let's go!" Charger replies. The three run off, deeper into the forests to stay hidden.

Ash lays unconscious in the corner of the block, with his arm covering his side. The block lays far away from the towers, in the trees, on the edge of the cliff, barely balanced. His armor is cracked, and blood patches stain his armor. Ash wakes up in a daze, blurry sight and a sick stomach. He can barely see a tree branch sticking through the block, clearly holding it up seeing as it is rocking slightly back and forth. "What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?" He jokes as he starts to stand up but falls down immediately in pain. He screams in pain as his stomach stretches when he tries to stand again. He looks down at his stomach to see a small branch stuck inside of him. The top is broken off and all that's left of the branch is the part inside him and a small splintered end sticking out. "Great!" He sighs then groans in pain. The branch holding the block cracks a little bit. It hurts to breathe when he moves, but Ash stands up anyway, he grabs his blaster and climbs towards the branch. He jumps and grabs it with a sharp yelp of pain and starts climbing toward the branches tree. The branch cracks more, holding by only a few threads of wood. He loses his grip of the tree due to the jerk and slams to the ground, he groans with pain and pushes himself back up. The block starts sliding off the branch. Ash jumps at the branch and grabs it as the block leaves the branch and falls down the cliff. Ash sighs with relief and pulls himself up the branch but before he reaches the tree, it snaps, and he falls down. His chest slams down on a ledge of the cliff and he stops breathing. He tries to breathe but to no avail. The wind had been knocked out of his chest. He pulls himself onto the ledge with all his remaining energy and waits for his breathing to return. His airway opens and he gasps for air. Once he calms down, he goes to push himself up, but when he shifts his weight, the ledge cracks and crumbles a little bit. He notices two gripping points on the cliff, and he lunges towards them. He grabs the points with a sharp stabbing pain in his stomach. The branch shifts in his stomach and cuts into him deeper with growing pain. He begins climbing the cliff, gradually reaching the top, then he pushes himself up onto solid ground and stands up, holding his gut. He staggers towards a tree and leans on the side of it, almost losing his balance and sliding down to the ground. He pushes himself away from the tree with his free hand and continues staggering through the woods.

He knows he needs a medical kit and fast if he's going to survive. But does he even want to survive? Scout and Sniper are dead, he'd seen the towers go down and thousands of troopers fall into the pit below. Chances are, at least most of his squad is dead. This would be a good end. He fought in an epic battle and helped kill the leader of the Gei and quite possibly saved the survivors. He slides down and leans on a tree. He rests his body and is about to close his eyes when all of a sudden, he sees another clone running through the woods. He recognizes the armor; blue paint matching scorches on his shins. It's Scout. He tries to shout out, but the pain is to unbearable. He points his blaster to the air and fires twice.

Scout dives behind a tree and loads his blaster. He rolls out from behind the tree to see where the shots came from to see a dying clone, perched against a tree with familiar armor. "Ash?" Scout asks in disbelief. "Ash!" He runs towards the fallen soldier and pulls the med-pack off his back. He kneels down next to him. "What's the problem?" He asks as he opens the med-pack. Ash gestures to his stomach where the branch is stabbing into him. "Oh!" He panics in alarm. "Uh... I don't know what to do. You paid attention during those medical classes, right?" Ash nods weakly. "Alright! Walk me through it. Do I use something to remove the branch?" Ash shakes his head. "Do I just grab it?" Ash shakes his head again. "I leave it!?" Ash nods. "So, what do I do?" Ash weakly grabs the bandage roll and medical tape.

"Stop..." Ash starts quietly. "The bleeding."

"Okay. Got it." Scout replies and takes the bandage roll and wraps it around Ash's stomach, compressing the wound and slowing the bleeding. He keeps wrapping until the blood stops seeping through then tapes up the bandage.

"I need..." Ash starts again and takes a few breaths. "Real medical attention." He spits out as he groans with pain from talking.

"Don't talk unless you need to. Can you walk if I help you?" Scout asks and Ash nods. Scout slowly helps up his brother and supports him by his shoulder. "One step at a time. We're going to make it."

"It's a miracle that I was able to get you mobile again." Kix explains with a focused tone as he finishes enforcing Ace's back brace. After the tower sank, Fives and Fire decided to seek medical attention for Ace after he almost drowned in the tower. They found Kix and his group of survivors not long after on the North shore where he had reported. The twelve survivors were all in decent shape, but Fives and Fire could tell they were exhausted. Ace sits on a log as Kix attempts to fix the problems.

Ace has a bandage wrapped around his forehead and his left arm is in a sling. He had experienced a minor concussion and his left arm had been badly sprained. His right arm was doing okay as it was just dislocated and his back, while not broken, appears to have every single muscle pulled out of place. "Now remember. Just because you are mobile, does not mean you can fight. If we are to engage in combat, you are to stay hidden. Right now, you're very delicate. One wrong step, and you could be paralyzed for life." Kix warns.

"Then I guess I'll have to watch my step." Ace jokes as Kix helps him up. He takes tiny steps at first, but soon he starts taking normal paced steps with ease. "No problem."

"That's the best you'll be until we get back to the ship. DO NOT push it!" Kix urgently reminds.

"I got it sir. I _understand_." Ace insists.

"You better. I've lost too many men today." Kix states sadly.

"I promise I won't be the next. I'd hate to leave my squad like this." Ace replies and pats Fire's shoulder. Everyone's comm goes off and they turn their attention to the devices.

"This is CT-7567. Captain Rex calling in. All troopers report to my location: Dash thirty-two echo." The comm says. " _The wolves will be here in five alloys._ "

Kix looks up at everyone. "We have to move quickly. Five minutes until reinforcements arrive, we'll want to be there when the landing party arrives. Particularly our wounded," Kix looks at Ace. "Let's move out!" The clones gear up and follow Kix through the woods.

"Dash thirty-two echo?" Fire asks Fives. Knowing it was more of the code he had refused to learn.

"The eastern shore, near the crater." Fives answers. Fire shakes his head in disbelief and chuckles a bit.

"How do you know this!?"

Eighty LAAT's packed with soldiers start entering the atmosphere. In the lead one, Jedi Master Plo Koon and Commander Wolffe line up orders for each of the four battalions when the ships land. They've got an entire regiment devoted to this planet. They have to succeed.

Before the ships can enter their landing sequence, droid transports launch an assault as they try to deploy more droids on the planet. The LAAT's fight back, but ships begin crashing everywhere. Flaming parts of debris smash into the trees, forming forest fires, attacking anyone who dare cross it's path. More giant dragon like creatures attack both factions and the Gei launch a star fighter assault on the ships.

"All transports, begin landing sequence!" Wolffe orders through his comm. They're forced to land early and the surviving LAAT's spill out troopers. "Volunteer Force, use your upgraded armor to take out those droid transports. Warthog, begin the fighter assault!"

"Copy that commander." C.C. replies from one of the few still flying LAAT's. She puts on her helmet and turns to meet the other twenty-nine VF-Troopers. "You heard the commander, let's move!" She orders and the doors to the LAAT slide open. Three other LAAT's follow suit. The troopers jump out of their ship and activate their jet packs. "Ben take the left flank with VF-9. Timmerman, right flank with VF-17. Everyone else, with me through the center."

Ben and Timmerman veer off with their new squads and dive towards the transports in range. Landing on them and taking out their engines from the skies. Ben lands on one and activates his wrist blades. A short blade pops extends from each wrist and he stabs the 'eyes' of the droid ship. It sputters and Ben leaps off as it explodes and crashes to the ground.

Timmerman dives under another and throws two proximity bombs onto the ship, immediately exploding it the moment he's a safe distance away. He fires with the rest of his squad at one of the dragon creatures and throws nano explosives at the scaly foe. "S.M., now!" He shouts from his helmet comm. S.M. pushes a button on her armor and hundreds of explosions attack the creature at once. It screeches, then falls to the ground with a loud thud. "That's how it's done! Woohoo!" He celebrates.

"Hey! Focus!" S.M. reminds him as she lands on a Gei fighter and breaks the glass to the cockpit with her fist. "There are men down there relying on us!" She adds as she shoots the pilot.

"And _I'm_ relying on _you_ to be alive at the end of this battle!" Timmerman explains.

"For what?" S.M. asks.

"Supper, my place?" He offers.

"You know as high command we have access to all comm conversations, right?" C.C. interrupts.

"Sorry captain." S.M. replies quickly.

"Guess you'll have to wait on that answer mate!" Ben jokes. "On the bright side, I'll go to supper with you!"

"Oh, and I could go to!" Renee chimes in as she stabs a Gei jet trooper and whips the body at another's jet pack, blowing them both up. Republic star fighters enter the atmosphere and engages the Gei fighters.

"Captain, we've got it from here. Head to the ground and assist in the evacuation." Warthog reports form his ARC-170.

"Thanks Warthog, have fun up there!" C.C. replies. "Volunteer Force, on me!" She orders and dives towards the ground.

"There's too much heat down here!" Wolffe shouts to the high command in the star cruisers above. Droids have surrounded Wolffe, Plo Koon and all surviving clones in a small circle, created by their ships. "Send in everyone we've got up there!"

"Even the shinnies?" The admiral asks in shock. These shinnies were going on this mission to observe how a ship functioned on longer trips. They had never been in combat before. They hadn't even had their first mission yet.

"Send everyone!" Wolffe orders loudly as an explosion knock him off his feet.

Twenty more LAAT's soon entire the battlefield, filled with shinnies, and extra crew members. The star fighters protect the ships as they enter their landing sequence behind the enemy surrounding Wolffe's forces. The new clones open fire on the droids, catching them by surprise. Slik leads the charge with the rest of Flaming squadron by his side.

"Chestplate, Pale, move onto the right flank! Scratch and Nines go left! Let's save those men!" Slik orders.

"You've got it sir!" Nines replies and opens fire with his Z-6. "Push forward!" He cheers and charges at the droids.

"There's the ships! Go! Go! Go! Go!" Rex orders. The surviving members of Torrent Company hurry their way to the LAAT's to get out of this mess. Anakin leads the charge with his lightsaber clearing the path.

"Stay together men! We're getting out of here!" Anakin promises as the ships come into view. Fire and Fives stay on either side of Ace, protecting him from any oncoming danger. Echo and Charger stay close to the others, not wanting to lose them again. Trick, however, stays in the front with Rex and Skywalker.

Things started making sense to him. All this time to think about the stuff he had learned about the inhibitor chip. All from the fateful day where he lost his memory. Thanks to Charger, he's slowly started remembering his life. Just a few hours ago, he remembered what happened.

 **Kamino: During the Banshee Attack**

Trick wakes up in his medical bed. There's no longer medicine in his arms and he still has both of his arms. After his walk around the station, his operation to correct his problems started.

"The operation was a huge success. You're completely free to go with no restrictions!" A medical droid tells him.

"Where's Charger?" He asks.

"Clone Trooper Charger has received a transmission. He will be back momentarily." The droid replies.

"I'm going for another walk." Trick announces.

"You cannot." The droid stops him.

"What do you mean?" Trick asks.

"I have received direct orders for you to stay here." The droid replies.

"Why?" Trick asks, worriedly.

"You are sick in a way I do not understand. It is part of your biological make up. You are, malfunctioning." The droid explains.

"Malfunctioning? How?" Trick asks, even more scared.

"I do not know, but it could lead to death, and we are not sure if it is contagious or not. Doctor Nala Se will take care of you." The droid explains. "Goodbye." The droid starts to leave.

"Wait! No!" Trick calls out but the door shuts and locks him in. He dives at the medical droid and switches it off. He quickly takes out it's memory bank and places it inside the monitor by his bed. He begins scrolling through its list of operations until he finds his number. He begins reading the report. The monitor feeds him more and more information about several different orders that if ordered, he would obey immediately without a second thought. He realizes that he's not a living being, he's just a droid to the Republic. His chip has malfunctioned and they're going to remove it. He finds Order 66 and stares at it with disbelief. "No way! I have to take this to the Jedi!" Trick quickly takes out the memory bank and slides it into his boot pocket.

"Return the memory bank to me and stand down soldier." Nala Se orders him. She had just entered the room and Trick hadn't noticed her come up to him.

"Yes doctor." Trick replies and slides the memory bank out of his wrist comm and hands it to Nala Se.

"Good." Nala Se replies then stuns him and begins the memory wipe operation.

They reach the LAAT's and clones pile in. Well over capacity. As the ships begin taking off. Two last 501st clones come into view and one LAAT swoops down to pick them up. Scout and Ash are relieved to see the ships and Fives and Fire rush out to help Ash into the ship and give exchanged looks of joy and confusion to see Scout. Ace is in the back of the LAAT when Scout walks in, but quickly pushes through the crowd of clones once he sees who just entered. Ace goes to hug his brother, but his back starts to give him a little pain and he's forced to stop.

"We thought you were dead!" Ace tells him. Overjoyed to see him still alive.

"I thought _I_ was dead." Scout replies.

"Where's _your_ helmet?" Ace asks.

"Why are _you_ in a cast?" Scout asks back.

"We have a lot of catching up to do." Ace replies happily.

"As much as I want to catch up, Ash is dying. We need to help him first." Scout responds urgently.

"Right! Is Kix on board?" Ace asks the other clones.

"No. But lucky for you. I'm a medic too." A Wolf Pack soldier replies and starts examining Ash. "I'm going to need help. But I think he'll be okay." The medic gets hard to work as the ships exit the atmosphere. He's able to stabilize Ash and the others gather around him. Except Trick, who sits in the corner, overwhelmed by his memories.

"So, what was the battle with the Gei leader like?" Fire asks Ash once Ash gains the strength to talk.

"They had lightsabers. We fought them with lightsabers too, but we were no match for all of them. I was about to be killed when Sniper-" Ash cuts himself off. He takes a deep breath. "When Sniper pushed me out of the way and got stabbed. He died soon after." The others don't know what to say. They stand quietly the rest of the way to the star cruiser.

When they get to the ship, they go their separate ways to deal with the death differently. Scout takes Ash and Ace to the medical bay, Echo, Fives and Charger head to their bunks, Fire heads to the shooting range and Trick hides in a hallway and checks his boot pocket and pulls out the memory bank. It's time for a plan. The Republic is flawed and doesn't respect clones as lifeforms. He needs to save the Jedi and liberate his brothers from Republic slavery. He has a lot of work ahead of him.

The Gei leader limps into a Separatist transport and closes the door behind him. He slides down against the wall and lowers his head. Blood drips from his forehead and his clothes are stained with blood. The Mandalorians had launched him out of the block, but he was able to catch himself on one of the Mandalorian clones. A hooded figure stands at the back of the ship in the dark. "Did you kill the target?" The figure asks with his deep old voice.

"Yes, but it cost me more than I thought it would. I've lost a lot of valued men today. My pay is going to need to be increased. I feel like maybe triple?" The Gei leader suggests.

The figure smirks under his hood and activates his curved red lightsaber. The Gei leader staggers back with confusion and fear. "I think you'll find your pay is quite acceptable." The man replies and throws his lightsaber at the leader, cutting off his arm and slicing off his shins. He falls to the ground and screams in pain while the hood figure walks up to him and pulls down his hood, revealing the Sith Lord Count Dooku. He kneels and gets close to the Gei's face. "Pleasure doing business with you."

 **The end! For now of course! Giga will return but at this time, the story has concluded. I really hope you enjoyed and thank you to each and everyone of you for reading Neon Squadron, I really enjoyed writing it. Please let me know who your favourite character was and which chapter was your favourite, I really want to know! The second book will be coming out eventually and I will update this story to provide teasers for it, starting with its title: Giga's Collapse.**


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